Mr. Kikby on Ilcrbst's Genus Apion. 41 



that as jet he is unacquainted with it \ and on this account I have 

 not referred to him. 



It will be expected that I assign my reasons for giving the in- 

 sect here described as the genuine Curculio Fagi of Linne. My 

 description was taken from the original specimens still preserved 

 in the Linnean Cabinet. These are fastened with gum upon a 

 piece of paper inscribed by Linne s own hand, whieh places 

 their identity beyond all question ; since the name, being written 

 upon the same paper on which the insects are fastened, cannot 

 have been changed even by accident. 



That naturalists should have been at a loss about this species 

 appears not so wonderful, when Ave consider that Linn6 has 

 placed it in an order to whieh it does not belong, namely 

 amongst his Saltatorii, femoribus posticis crassis. There is one 

 circumstance mentioned in the description of Faun. Suec, which, 

 if it had been observed, would have pointed out that this insect 

 was in a wrong place — viz. Antenna — injimo articulo — viv reliquis 

 longiore. In the curculios of that family, and indeed in all the 

 genuine curculios, the first joint of the antennae is nearly as long 

 as all the rest taken together, and forms an angle with them. 

 Whether this insect be a jumper, having never seen a living spe- 

 cimen, I cannot positively say; yet none of the species of the 

 genus Apion, that are known at present, are of that description ; 

 and the posterior thighs of Apion Fagi are scarcely thicker than 

 the four anterior, and therefore are not particularly adapted to 

 such a mode of motion. 



Scopoli has a Curculio Fagi, and Linne refers to him for it, 

 hastily it should seem, and without sufficiently attending to his 

 description. Totusniger> villo brevi pubescens. Caput gerit rostro 

 nihilo brevius — neque dicendus longirostris. These ^are characters 

 which are quite at variance with the genuine insect and his own 

 description. 



vol. ix. G 22. APION 



