THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 137 



narrower; the prothorax is longer in proportion to its width, and has an 

 obsolete channel : the elytra are more distinctly punctured, and besides 

 the ordinary elevation at the termination of the external ridge, have two 

 smaller ones at that of the other two ridges ; the ridge next the suture also 

 is more elevated at its termination than in S. optica, of which in even- 

 other respect it is the exact counterpart. The elytra of the female are 

 slightly sinuated at the apex, and obtusely acuminate. Variety 15. Quite 

 black. 



144. Oiceoptoma [Silpha] [N^equale Fabr. — Length of body 5 ^ — 

 6 lines. Same localities as the preceding. 



Body black, not at all glossy, minutely punctured ; punctures not 

 visible except under a good lens. Three last joints of the antennae 

 cinereous : prothorax anteriorly emarginate with four discoidal obtuse 

 ridges, the lateral ones undulated and oblique and the intermediate ones 

 straight and parallel : elytra with the three customary longitudinal ridges, 

 the outermost the shortest and most elevated, and the intermediate one 

 towards the apex curving inwards ; in the female the apex of the elytra is 

 subacuminate and very acute, but with scarcely any sinus ; in the male it 

 is rounded. [Quite common in Canada.] 



MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 



Acorn Weevils. — I see that in the last Canadian Entomologist, 

 Air. f. Pettit refers the Acorn Weevil to Balaninus nasicus Say. It is true 

 that Say's descriptions are so brief that, not knowing how many specimens 

 he described from, it is difficult to fully recognize his species, and Dr. 

 Horn may, in this sense, be (mite right in stating that the acorn-feeding 

 species cannot be referred to any that are described. Yet the species I 

 have bred must evidently be referred to Say"s rectus, which is easily dis- 

 tinguished from nasicus by the finer, more rectilinear rostrum. If Mr.. 

 Pettit has specimens of nasicus, I think he will have no difficulty in dis- 

 tinguishing the two species, and I shall be greatly obliged if he will send 

 me a few of his acorn-bred specimens. 



In what I take to be nasicus, the rostrum is on an average darker, thick- 

 er more curved, shorter, and with the antennae springing from its middle 

 in the <J and from its basal third in the °. . Two thoracic paler vittae are 

 observable on the thorax, and there is always a pale transverse band be- 



