52 [March, 



APIOX {EXAPION) KIESENWETTERI, Desbr., A BRITISH INSECT. 

 BT G. C. CHAMPION, F.Z.S. 



A few months ago Mr. W. Holland, of Oxford, sent me for ex- 

 amination a single specimen of an Apion, taken by himself at Sandown, 

 Isle of Wight, on August 4th, 1906, and suggested that it was pro- 

 bably a species new to the British list. As this insect agreed perfectly 

 with two others from Chattenden, standing as A. fascirostre, (^ , in my 

 cabinet, I paid no further attention to the matter at the time. Sub- 

 sequently, however, on seeing various others from the same Kentish 

 locality, including both sexes, in Commander Walker's collection, I 

 re-examined the whole of them, and soon found that they were per- 

 fectly distinct from A.fuscirostre. Herr J. Schilsky has now given 

 me his opinion on the insect, and pronounces it to be A. kiesenwetteri, 

 Desbr., a species new to our list and apparently rare on the continent, 

 Bavaria and Hungary being the only recorded localities for it. [cf. 

 Schilsky, in Kiister's " Die Kiifer Europa's," xxxix, Heft 11 (1902)]. 



The following diagnosis of the species is taken from this work : 



A. nigrum, opacum, supra griseo pnbescens, pertore laterihus liensius 

 alhirlo-'pubescente, pube elytrorum cequaJi, antennarum basi pedibusque rufo- 

 testaceis, his genubus, tibiis apice tarsisque nigris, capite valde transversa, 

 crebre punctata, oculis magnis modice prominulis, rostro subrecto, thoracis 

 longitiidine, basi fortiter dilatato-dentato, deinJe cylindrivo, tenui, nitido, 

 antennis basi sitis, apicem versus nuirivant'ibus, thorace suhtransverso, laterihus 

 rotund ato-ampliato, confer iim profundeque puiictato, basi stria brevi inscuJpta, 

 elytris ellipticis, striato-punctatis, interstitiis planis, subtiliter punetatis. — 

 Long, 2'1 — 2"6 mm. 



Mas. : oculis magnis, elytris subparallelis, tarsorum posticorum articulo 

 1° intus dentiforme producto ; funiciili articulis 3° — 7° transversis. 



Fern. : fronte latiore, elytris ovatis, fvniculi articulis 2° — 5° haud trans- 

 versis, gracilioribtis. 



A. Jciesenivetteri is of about the same size and shape as A. 

 semivittatum, except that the prothorax is more rounded at the sides, 

 and the rostrum is more slender and dentate on each side near the 

 base. Compared with A.fuscirostre (as noted, in part, by Desbrochers 

 in his original description*), it is smaller and less elongate ; the ros- 

 trum is shorter ; the prothorax is rounded at the sides, and more 

 transverse ; the elytra are not compressed at the sides ; the finevesti- 

 ture of the upper surface (soon abraded) is closer, more uniformly 

 distributed, and wholly white, and condensed into a short oblong 



* Mittheil, Schweiz. ent. Ges., iii, p. 204(1870). 



