NEW BRITISH SPECIES, ETC., IX 1873. 105 



p. 492; Thomson, Scancl. Col., vii, 1865, p. 286; 



H. Brisout, Anu. Soc. Ent. Fr. (4), v, 1865, p. 270; 



E. C. Rye, Ent. Mo. Mag., ii, p. 225 ; id. ibid., x., 



p. 10. 

 Two specimens of this insect, superficiallj very distinct 

 from O. scutellaris, were taken some years ago by Mr. S. 

 Stevens at Weybridge. It has been considered indigenous 

 to this country by Stephens (Illust. Mand., iv, p. 60, Manual, 

 p. 230), and M. Brisout, in his Monograph, adopts the 

 Stephensian reference, and also attributes the nigricollis 

 of Marsham and Stephens to it as a variety, though Mr. 

 Walton, in 1856 ("List of British Curculionida^," one of 

 the Brit. Mus. Catalogues, p. 32) had expressly referred 

 semirufus of Stephens's Collection to quercus, Linn., and 

 nigricollis to mehmocephalus, 01., and this synonymy is 

 repeated in Mr. Waterhouse's " Catalogue" (p. 77, Sheet 

 L 2, about 1860, — not 1858, the first date mentioned, and 

 adopted for the whole by Hagen). Thomson unhesitatingly 

 attaches semirufus, with suturalis, Zett., jnibescens, Schon., 

 pilosus, Gyll., and other insects, forming no less than six 

 colour varieties, to scutellaris, Schon., which appears to 

 range from rufo-ferruginous with the apex of the rostrum 

 black, to black with ferruginous antennae and tarsi, and five 

 spots of black hairs on the elytra. M. Brisout, who does 

 not quote these, acknowledges albopilosus, Reiche, and 

 rufus, Schrank, as colour-varieties : he also states that the 

 thorax of semirufus is less rounded at the sides than in 

 scutellaris, and that the femora are differently toothed in the 

 two insects, being " obsoletement denticulees " in semi- 

 rufus^ and armed with " 4 denticules tres fins et obsoletes, 

 le dernier plus saillant," in scutellaris. These structural 

 characters, if they exist, have escaped the lyncean eye of 

 the Swede, who on more minute points founds a new genus 



