Mr. J. Walton on the genus Apion. 395 



and very finely punctured, with a small round fovea before the 

 scutcllum. I forwarded to Gcrmar seven examples of Ap. ehc- 

 ninum of Kirby, and at the same time I solicited him to send me 

 specimens of Ap. Kunzei, as he had recorded in his ' Monograph ' 

 that he possessed examples of Ap. ebeninum from Kunze of Leipsic. 

 I received from him two insects named " Ap. ebeninum of Ger- 

 mar '^ with the following note : " Ap. Kunzei, Schonh., is un- 

 known to me '/^ the specimens which I forwarded to Germar were 

 taken promiscuously from the same series as those I had pre- 

 viously sent to Schonherr, and were collected in the same locality ; 

 Germar, in prefacing his observations upon the British species of 

 Curculionides, presented to him by me for examination, observes, 

 that " all the species in which we concur are omitted," and Ap. 

 ebeninum is one of that number. I have now in my possession 

 two insects which were sent to M. Schonherr by Mr.Waterhouse, 

 and returned in October 1837, named Ap. ebeninum. 



I have been induced to re-examine the insects in Mr. Kirby^s 

 collection with the name of Ap. ebeninum, to examine carefully 

 the specimens of Mr. Waterhouse, and the two insects from Dr. 

 Germar, together with a long series of seventy specimens of my 

 own, found partly in the same locality as those I sent to M. Schon- 

 herr ; and after a tedious and minute examination of so many 

 insects, I feel perfectly satisfied they all belong to the same 

 species. 



This remarkable insect has very little affinity to any other 

 species, except its being of the same genus, and may be distin- 

 guished at first sight by its singular form and peculiar sculpture ; 

 nevertheless the sculpture, particularly on the thorax, will be 

 found, when critically examined, to vary in many specimens, yet 

 they are so intimately linked together in a long series, that it 

 is impossible to regard them otherwise than as varieties. The 

 majority have the head with three impunctate striae between the 

 eyes, the central stria frequently deeply cut, sometimes faintly 

 marked, occasionally abbreviated, rarely entirely absent, with one 

 or two rows of minute punctures on each side, which are occa- 

 sionally confluent, the vertex smooth ; the greater part have the 

 thorax very minutely punctured, the punctures more or less scat- 

 tered, sometimes distinct, at other times obsolete, uniformly with 

 a fovea near the base before the scutellum, which is invariably 

 intersected either by a dorsal furrow or an impressed line, always 

 commencing at the base, and more or less abbreviated in front, 

 rarely continued to the apex ; some have the furrows broad and 

 deep, extending nearly to the apex, almost obliterating the foveae ; 

 these varieties agree with the descriptions of Ap. ebeninum by 

 Kirby, and of Ap. Kunzei oi Schonherr : other specimens have a 



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