214 



The Irish Naturalist. 



rougher surface. Mr. Champion further remarks that it re- 

 sembles a atroapterus, DG., in shape and size, but differs also 

 from that species in its rougher sculpture. O. auropunctatus 

 derives its name from the scattered patches of golden pubes- 

 cence on the thorax and elytra— an adornment which becomes 

 very easily rubbed off. Our Irish specimens vary in colour 

 from rich chestnut brown to almost black. 



Otiorrhynchus auropunctatus, Gyll. 



Fig. I Female, iiat. size. Fig. 2 Male, magnified. 



Fig. 3 Hinder end of abdomen of Male. 



The section of Otiorrhynchus to which O. aiiropimctatus 

 belongs is characterised' by the very distinct longitudinal 

 striation (fig. 3) beneath the hindmost abdominal segment in 

 the male. This group is specially characteristic of the 

 Mediterranean district and Southern Europe, only a few species 

 — of which O. tenebricosus is one — extending their range into 

 Central and Northern Europe. We have, therefore, in this 

 beetle a most interesting addition to the group of animals of 

 southern origin, which, absent or extremely rare in northern 

 Continental Europe and in Great Britain, form so interesting 

 a feature in the fauna of Ireland. 



I^rom the various captures of this weevil by Messrs. Cuth- 

 bert and Halbert, it appears to be distributed along the eastern 

 Irish coast from Carlingford to Dublin. The localities where 



^ O. Stiefliil— Bestimmungstabellen der Europ. Curculioniden Schaff- 

 hauseti, 1883, 



