Mr. J. Walton on the genus Sitona. 233 



§ C. Eyes very prominent. 



10. Sitona tibialis, Herbst, Germ,, Schonh. 

 Cure, chloropus, Marsh. 

 S. lineellus, Gyll., Schonh. 

 — ambiguus (var.), Schonh. 

 Cure, albescens, affinis et lineatulus, Kirb. MSS. 



Oblong, black ; clothed more or less thickly or unequally with 

 shining silvery, coppery, or green scales, and with very short, 

 suberect, inconspicuous setae. Head broad, rugulose -punctate ; 

 the front with a broad and very deep furrow extending nearly to 

 the apex of the rostrum : eyes large and very prominent : rostrum 

 rather shorter than the head, and a little narrower, similarly 

 punctured. Antennse entirely testaceous, or frequently with the 

 joints of the funiculus piceous, and the clava fuscous. Thorax 

 subquadrate, moderately dilated and rounded at the sides, convex 

 above, transversely impressed near the apex, which is distinctly 

 elevated, deeply rugose-punctate; commonly more thickly co- 

 vered on the lateral margins and down the middle with scales, 

 distinctly or obsoletely trilineated. Elytra long-ovate, very con- 

 vex above, profoundly punctate-sulcate, the interstices narrow 

 and convex, indistinctly rugulose ; the suture, the fourth inter- 

 stice (rarely the second), and the margin on each elytron more 

 or less thickly clothed with pale scales ; either distinctly or indi- 

 stinctly lineated, or often concolorous and scattered, and fre- 

 quently more or less denuded. Body densely covered with sil- 

 very-white scales beneath. Legs, with the femora generally black, 

 sometimes the base and apex testaceous ; the tibise and tarsi also 

 testaceous, the latter frequently piceous ; the legs rarely entirely 

 black. Length 1^^ — 2\ Hnes. 



British specimens of this insect were examined by Schonherr 

 and Germar, and referred to Cure, tibialis of Herbst ; tested by 

 Schiippel. The following are small narrow varieties, viz. Cure, 

 albescens of Kirby and Sit. ambiguus of Schonh. (of which I have 

 foreign specimens), very thinly clothed with silvery-gray scales 

 of one colour ; Cure, affinis and Cure, lineatulus of Kirby, rather 

 densely clothed with silvery-gray scales ; the latter variety with 

 the alternate interstices of the elytra regularly lineated, and the 

 legs black. 



Marsham appears to have confounded this insect with Cure, 

 sulcifrons under the name of C. chloropus (see notes under S. sul- 

 cifrons), and as from the insufficiency of his characters it appears 

 doubtful to which it should be referred, and as it seems to have 

 escaped the notice of Stephens, I necessarily describe it. 



Of Cure, lineellus I have carefully examined two foreign spe- 

 cimens from Gyllenhal, four from the collection of Billberg, and 



Ann. ^ Mag. N. Hist. Vol. xvii. S 



