THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



No. 28.] MAY, MDCCCI^VI. [Price 6d. 



Observations on concluding portion of the Curculionida, Sfc. 

 By G. R. Crotch, Esq. 



At length the final volume of M. Lacordaire's ' Genera ' 

 has appeared, bringing us down to the end of the Rhyn- 

 chophora. In accordance with the promise of last year's 

 ' Annual,' we may look for a conclusion of the careful 

 analysis of the work there commenced ; in the nieanlime 

 I will offer a few observations on some British genera 

 which have undergone alteration. The relative position of 

 these latter genera has been materially altered, and brought 

 more into accordance with their real affinities ; indeed, it is 

 hard to see on what principle Phytobius and Rhinoncus 

 have been separated wide as the poles, when in fact they are 

 scarcely more than sub-genera. 



The genus Miarus, regarded by M. Brisout as a sub-genus 

 ofGymnetron, is elevated to a separate rank, and on very 

 good grounds, forming as it does an exception to the cha- 

 racter of the family. M. Lacordaire also shows that the 

 pectoral groove in the second subdivision of Gymnelron has 

 no existence in nature. Schonherr first made the error, and 

 afterwards corrected it ; M. Brisout reproduced it, and it 

 thus found its way into these pages, and subsequently into 

 the ' Annual.' Rhamphus, after being balloted about in all 

 parts of the list, finally finds its place near Cryptoihynchus. 

 It is without question closely allied to Orchestes, and is only 

 removed from it on account of its separated coxae : in the 

 case ofGymnetron and Miarus, M. Lacordaire has held that 

 the intimate connexion of the two genera should override the 

 difference in the coxae, and I think the same might con- 

 sistently have been affirmed here. 



The pale-coloured species have been separated from the 

 other Caeliodes, under the name of Megacetes, by Thomson, 

 a step justified by M. Lacordaire, who gives as the character of 

 the new genus," pectoral groove extending to the metasternum." 



VOL. III. p 



