Mr. J. Walton on the genus Apion. 331 



places in England ; and Mr. Thompson, Belfast,, has found it all 

 around the coast of Ireland ; but the only habitat in Scotland 

 mentioned by Prof. Edward Forbes is the gneiss shore of Ross- 

 shire. 



I may mention, that about five years ago, I found near the same 

 locality at Clackland Point, a little starfish which was quite new 

 to me, and for which afterwards I repeatedly looked in vain. I 

 found two of them alive, adhering to Halidrys siliquosa, but they 

 were lost by being deposited in a vasculum which had been so 

 injured that it could not be kept closely shut. This starlet was 

 not more than |ths of an inch in length, and little more than fths 

 in breadth ; and as it had only four rays, and as the angles were 

 not produced, it had quite the appearance of a miniature oblong 

 shield. It was ash-coloured above. It is possible that it might 

 be an abnormal variety of Asterina gibbosa, but this must remain 

 in dubia till it is found by some person with a securer vas- 

 culum. 



XLVIII. — Notes on the Synonymy of the Genus Apion, with De- 

 scriptions of Six new Species, ^c. By John Walton, Esq., 

 F.L.S. 



[Continued from vol, xiii. p. 457.] 



37. Apion striatum, Marsh., Kirb., Steph. Manual. 



— Pisi, Germ., Steph. 



— atratulum, Germ., Steph., Schonh. 



This species may be distinguished from the following by having 

 the head rugose -punctate between the eyes, and the vertex with a 

 smooth shining transverse band adjoining the thorax ; this is a con- 

 stant character : the thorax has a distinct dorsal channel. The 

 majority have the elytra obcuneiform and very convex ; these may 

 be regarded as of the normal form ; but many individuals have a 

 tendency to become much shorter, and these varieties have the 

 elytra globose-ovate and subglobose ; others are narrowed poste- 

 riorly and less convex, having the forms oblong-ovate and oblong- 

 oval ; hence the difiiculty of identifying species from descriptions. 

 Kirby and Stephens describe this species with the elytra globose ; 

 Germar and Schonherr as obcuneiform: when the extreme forms 

 are contrasted by placing them in juxtaposition, it is difiicult to 

 believe that they belong to the same species ; yet in a long series 

 they are closely linked together by a regular transition from one 

 form to another, and by the natural character of the sculpture. 

 Small specimens are sometimes found less than half the magni- 

 tude of others, with intermediate sizes. The characters which 

 commonly distinguish the sexes are not very obvious in this and 



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