233 Mr. J. Walton on the genm Sitona. 



Common in woods, on the oak, birch and hazel, particularly 

 in the chalky districts of Kent and Surrey, from June to Sep- 

 tember. 



9. Sitona Meliloti, Walton. 



Elongate, black ; clothed more or less densely with coppery and 

 fuscous, or cinereous and silvery-gray scales. Head narrow, very 

 little broader than the rostrum, closely punctulated ; the front 

 flat, with a deeply impressed longitudinal line, commencing on 

 the vertex and extending nearly to the apex of the rostrum : eyes 

 rather smaller and a little less prominent than the other species 

 of this section except the last : rostrum rather shorter than the 

 head. Antennae testaceous, sometimes the funiculus pitchy, with 

 the clava fuscous. Thorax as broad as long; moderately dilated 

 and rounded at the sides ; the base rather broader than the apex ; 

 convex above, very closely and minutely punctured ; more or less 

 densely clothed at the sides with scales ; the disc sparingly so, 

 obsoletely trilineated or partially abraded. Elytra elongate ; the 

 shoulders subrectangular and rounded ; the sides nearly straight ; 

 the apex obtusely rounded, rather deeply punctate-striate, more 

 or less thickly clothed with scales ; distinctly maculated on the 

 shoulders and scutellum ; the interstices indistinctly variegated 

 with fuscous and cinereous scales : specimens sometimes occur 

 very thinly clothed with silvery-gray scales, concolorous or par- 

 tially denuded. Body densely clothed with scales beneath. Legs 

 black, wdth the base and apex of the femora, the tibiae and tarsi 

 testaceous. Length 2 — 2^ lines. 



Found in company with Sit. lineata and on the same plant, 

 and has been mistaken for that insect ; but Sit. lineata has the 

 head much broader, the eyes more prominent, and the sculpture 

 different. It is the most nearly allied to S. humeraliSj the head, 

 eyes and thorax being very similar, but >S^. humeralis differs in 

 having the front of the head, and the rostrum above, deeply ex- 

 cavated ; the thorax with large scattered punctures, and the inter- 

 stices minutely punctured; the elytra shorter, being long-ovate. 



This is, according to Schonherr, a new and undescribed spe- 

 cies ; and according to Germar, " closely allied to Sit. geniculatus 

 of Schonh., but having only a defective specimen of the true 

 Sit. geniculatus I cannot decide ; the thorax seems a little less 

 rounded." 



I found this species in Yorkshire on the melilot trefoil ( Trifo- 

 Hum officinale) in June ; subsequently it has been taken from the 

 same plant in Charlton sand-pits by Mr. S. Stevens and by myself, 

 in June and July. 



