M. H. Jekel — Tentamenta Entomologica. 269 



Patria : Anatolia (Dotn. Diqwnt). — Mus. Dom. Bowring, cJ $ . 

 Mus. Jekel, $ . 



Minutissimus angustissimusque in hoc genere. Individuis minori- 

 bus Balan. p)/rrIiocerafis, cui propinquus multo minor et angustior, 

 et in sequentibus diflert : 



Thorax longior, multo angustior, basin versus multo minus (certe 

 parum) ampliatus, subcylindricus, multo profundius laxiusque punc- 

 tato-rugosus. Elytra basi multo angustiora, apicem versus obtusius 

 subtruncato-rotundatum multo minus angustata, ergo subparallela, 

 profundius punctato-striata, interstitiis elevatioribus, profundius 

 laxiusque transversim punctato-rugosis. Femora omnia obtusius 

 dentata. 



This lilliputian Balaninus, ranking amongst the smallest Curcnlio- 

 nidae, being only the size oiApion aciculare, Germ., is not yet recorded 

 from Europe, although, as I have already said, it may be an inhabitant 

 of South-eastern Europe (either Turkey or Greece). The three speci- 

 mens upon which I foimd the species do not appreciably differ in 

 size, while its congeners, Brassicce and Pyrrhocems, vary very much 

 in this particular. The unusual coarseness of the rugosities of its 

 thorax, compared with its small size, distinguish it at once from 

 Pyrrhoceras, with which only it can be compared. 



Genus Ttchitjs, Sch. 



The rings of the abdomen in the Curculionidae are very seldom 

 exactly truncate at their apex, the first being most often emarginate in 

 the middle, and 2-4 generally sinuate, i. e. more or less roundly pro- 

 duced in the middle, apparently emarginate each side of the latter, 

 then more or less abruptly and obliquely produced downwards to the 

 sides, where they form an acute angle with the side itself. This 

 last character (often little evident, by the elj^tra embracing more or 

 less of the sides of the abdomen) is highly developed in some groups 

 (Cionina, Thoms. : Cionus and Nanophyes), but presents an anomaly 

 in some species of the artificial genus Tychius of Sch. (Tychius pr. d., 

 Stirps I., Sch., sp. 1-23), also in Miccotrogus and Sibynes, Seh.,= 

 Tychiina, Thorns., he. cit.* In most of these the second ring is so 

 much produced that it covers nearly the whole of the side of the 

 third ring (TycJi. striatellus and Sibynes silenes, &c.), and often even 

 reaches the base of the fourth (Tych. 5-punctatus, vermstus, &c., 

 Miccotr. cup7'ifer, picirosfris, &e., Sibynes viscarifp, tfcc.). In a few 



* Mr. Tliomson says of his Tychiina : "Abdomen segmento 2° ventrali lateri- 

 bus dentato-producto, basin 4' ohtegente" but this is exact for only a limited 

 number of species. 



