1873] *"• [Horn. 



M. pallida Say. Cure. N. A. p. 7 ; Am. Eut. ed. Lee. I, p. 206. 



Body beneath and legs piceous or black, elytra luteous or pale reddish- 

 brown. Thorax coarsely and moderately densely punctured, a fine 

 slightly elevated median line, serratures feeble, sides feebly arcuate at 

 base slightly sinuate, hind angles distinct but not very prominent. Ely- 

 tra parallel, base feebly impressed, sutural interval slightly elevated at 

 base, surface moderately striate, striae with coarse but not close punc- 

 tures, intervals feebly convex, finely alutaceous. Pygidium coarsely 

 punctured. Body beneath and legs black, tarsi piceous, body punctured 

 as in barbita. Length .12-. 16 inch ; 3-4 mm. 



Easily known by its coloration. 



Occurs in New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois. 



The species of Magdalis are all more or less pubescent when recently 

 captured, and the pubescence is so easily removed that but few cabinet 

 specimens retain it, therefore no mention has been made of it in the 

 above descriptions. 



BalamijSttjs Germ. 



The marked uniformity of vestiture of many of the species renders it 

 extremely difficult to separate them. Fortunately other more prominent 

 characters exist as will be seen in the table given below. As in Magdalis 

 the sexes are known by the longer rostrum of the female, which is more 

 slender and less arcuate than in the male. In the latter sex the dorsum 

 of the abdomen has eight segments and in the female seven. 



The mandibles of Balaninus are incapable of motion laterally, being 

 restricted to a motion in a vertical plane, acting like scissors in which 

 both edges are acute. 



In the American Journal of Science and Arts, Vol. XLIV, July, 1867, 

 Dr. Leconte writes as follows, after mentioning the existence in some 

 genera of Coleoptera of corneous exserted ovipositors, "But it was re- 

 served for the Rhynchophora to exhibit a degradation of type, by which 

 a function, peculiarly appropriate to the posterior extremity of the body, 

 is performed by the head ; the elongated beak becoming in fact the ovi- 

 positor." This appears to me true only so far as the perforation is con- 

 cerned into which the egg is to be deposited. The beak really perforates 

 the exterior of the acorn or other fiuit and the act of oviposition is done 

 by a long ovipositor of slender form and half the length of the body. I 

 have before me a specimen with the ovipositor protuded and an egg- 

 seized by its tip. 



Our species of Balaninus are as follows : 



First joint of funicle shorter than the second. 



Each elytron rounded at tip, pygidium in great part 



visible ; caryatrypes. 



First joint of funicle longer than the second. Elytra sub- 

 acute at tip, pygidium feebly exposed. 

 a. r. s. — vol. xiii. 3f 



