6 Mr. Kut by on Herbst's Genus Apion. 



all the rest put together, with which it forms an angle, so as to 

 make the antenna. 1 wear the appearance of being broken ; while 

 in the genus of which I am now treating the first joint is not 

 so remarkably longer than the rest, and is always in the same line 



with them. 



If these circumstances be allowed their due weight, we shall 

 feel disposed, I think, to give Fabricius credit for great discern- 

 ment, when he considered the Linnean character of Curculio as 

 indicating the division of an order rather than a genus: whether 

 he has with equal propriety placed the little insects in question, 

 in his genus Attelabus must be our next inquiry. jto . ^ 



Attelabus of Linne is an intermixture of genera scarcely, if, 

 at all, related to each other, concerning which that great father 

 of Natural History himself observes : Genus Attelabi etiamnum 

 inter obscura est nee aptius rcperi*. Fabricius, with great judg- 

 ment, has excluded At. surinamensis, melanurus, formicarius, si- 

 pylus, apiarius, mollis, ceramboides and buprestoides, which cer- 

 tainly have no connection with it, and in their place introduced 

 all the curculios which constitute Mr. Marsharns two first fami- 

 lies +, and these are evidently more nearly allied to At. Coryli, 

 Avellan<£, curculionoides, &c. than those just mentioned : still, 

 however, At. Coryli and Avellance (which are certainly distinct 

 species, though Fabricius has united them) differ essentially not 

 only from Curculio Betula,Fopuli,Bacckus,&c. Linn., but also from 

 At. curculionoides and Betillce; so that there seems to be some 

 reason for Herbst's making a distinct genus, as he does, under 

 the name of Rynchites, of many of the Fabrician Attelabi. In 

 these insects, I mean At. Coryli and Avellance, the clava of the 

 antennae is not so distinctly jointed, the head is elongate* nearly 

 obconical, and connected with the thorax by a narrow neck; the 



* Syst. Nat. Ed. 12. p. 619. Note. f Vix. A. a. *. ** 



eyes 



