2 notes upon the genera sitona, &c. 



Genus. — Sitona. 



The confusion which, more or less, exists in the synonymy, 

 and amongst the species of this genus, is so general and ex- 

 tensive, that I think I may be excused in attempting to put it 

 into better order. I have the pleasure of saying, I have been 

 permitted freely to examine nearly all the principal metro- 

 politan cabinets, with reference to this and the following 

 genera : they are all much in the same plight ; but it would be 

 ungrateful not to mention here, the kindness and politeness that 

 I have everywhere experienced from the Entomologists of Lon- 

 don, for which I feel obliged. I hope I may be excused in 

 referring to the collection of Mr. Kirby, as it has become the 

 property of the Entomological Society, by the generosity of its 

 illustrious donor, and is of easy access to entomologists. There 

 seem to be no less than five Protean species in this genus, — 

 viz., S. Spartii, S. Uneatus, S. tibialis, S. puncticollis, and S. 

 pleuritica, — every where plentiful ; and when we take into con- 

 sideration how closely species and their varieties frequently 

 approximate to each other, both in habit and sculpture, we 

 shall cease to wonder at the inaccuracies in this genus. 



Sitona Spartii and tibialis. 



I must now crave the reader's patience, to follow me through 

 a short narrative of the circumstances which gradually led me 

 to the consideration of the following species. After a fruitless 

 endeavour to ascertain some of their names, by means of books, 

 and the examination of some of the London collections, I com- 

 menced, on my return home from London, in March 1 836, to 

 collect numbers of the S. Spartii, and S. tibialis, from the Ulex 

 Europwus, which I put into oblong card boxes, about H inches 

 deep, covered with glass ; and, by means of a pocket lens, I 

 could most satisfactorily identify the sexes of each species, by 

 observing them in coitu, and removing each pair, by means of 

 a light pair of forceps, into pill-boxes. Thus I amused my- 

 self for several weeks, until I collected upwards of one hundred 

 pairs, which I mounted, and displayed upon cards ; and, when 

 exhibited to Mr. Curtis, during a short sojourn at my house, 

 in June 1836, he could not help laughing. Those which I 

 did not detect in coitu, I put into pill-boxes, until I had several 



