WALTON ON THE GENIUS APION. 255 



from a dealer at York, of the name of Chapman. Mr. Water- 

 house has another in his cabinet, which, when described, will 

 make fourteen species of the Genus Sitona. Polydrusus fiihi- 

 cornis is not a species ; I should now expunge it from my 

 list. 



Phyllobius maculicornis is not confined to the north, as I 

 supposed; I took it at Birch Wood on the 8th of June, and 

 again at Mickleham on the 11th of the same month: it has 

 been long confounded in the London cabinets with P. argen- 

 tatus; the latter is generally found upon trees, and the former 

 amongst grass. 



Apion Rumicis, A. hcematodes, and A. rubens, I beat out of 

 the Teucriiim Scorodonia, or Wood Germander, towards the 

 end of July, in this neighbourhood — the tv/o first in plenty ; 

 and on Oliver Mount, near Scarbro', in August following, I 

 again met with the two former species, always on the same 

 plant ; thus identifying, in two distinct localities, the connexion 

 of these insects with the said plant. . These I particularly 

 wanted, on account of the great affinity of the first to Apion 

 Spartii and A. affine, and of the second to A, sanguineum. 

 Having collected an extensive series of A. Rumicis from the 

 places above mentioned, and already possessing another long 

 series of A. affine, I found them to vary in size : some of the 

 A. Rumicis are as large as the smallest of ^. affine, but the 

 latter is generally a larger insect than the former. The form 

 of the thorax in both species is subject to variation, being- 

 more or less inclined to become sub-cylindrical, and more or 

 less globose or sub-globose. When these two species ap- 

 proximate in size, they appear so much alike that nothing 

 but a close examination of the sculpture can separate them ; 

 the punctures are coarser and deeper upon the thorax of 

 A. affine than on A. Rumicis. I now feel confident that 

 A. Spartii, of Kirby, is identical with his A. Rumicis, and 

 that one of the names must certainly fall. 



A. hcematodes is closely allied to A. sanguineum, but the 

 latter is generally larger, the legs stouter, and the sculpture 

 deeper and coarser than its congener. 



Apion simile. — I captured a female of this species on the 10th 

 of May, at Birch Wood, and again very plentifully both sexes 

 upon the common birch tree near Knaresboro, and also in 

 other distant places, invariably upon the same, the latter end 



