Bruchide. | PHYTOPHAGA. 259 
hundred and twelve species are enumerated as belonging to this family, 
including the genus Urodon ; the number has, however, been consider- 
ably increased since that time, and several new genera have been added ; 
four genera (Rhebus, Kytorhinus, Spermophagus, and Bruchus) are 
found in ous represented by a hundred and fifty-one species, of 
which all but nine belong to Bruchus ; this latter genus is the only one 
that is represented in Britain. The revivers of old names have played 
havoc with the nomenclature of the family, and certainly produced a 
confusion that is a reductio ad absurdum of their system; Bruchus, 
according to them, becomes Mylabris, and the family is termed Myla- 
bride ; the well-known Mylabris thus requiring a new name is called 
Zonabris ; and worse than all, the Ptinide are named Bruchide, and our 
familiar Ptinus is changed to Bruchus. 
BRUCHUS, Linné ef auct. 
This genus contains upwards of four hundred species, which are 
widely distributed throughout the world, both in temperate and tropical 
countries ; the real distribution of the majority of the species can hardly 
be known, as so many have been conveyed from one country to another 
by commerce, and then been naturalized ; about one hundred and forty 
are found in Europe, of which thirteen occur in Britain; several of 
these are, however, almost undoubted importations; they are in a few 
eases rather hard to determine from descriptions, some of the characters, 
such as that of the lateral teeth of the thorax, not being at first sight 
very obvious ; the head is projecting and is constricted behind, and the 
antennee are more or less strongly thickened and often very distinctly 
serrate; the posterior tibia are usually, but not always, toothed 
before apex, and the first jomt of the posterior tarsi is very much 
elongated and more or less curved; the margins of the thorax are 
very narrow and often scarcely apparent and concealed by pubescence, 
with which, in many cases, the colour of the upper surface is much 
variegated. 
I. Prevailing colour of elytra bright brown or reddish- 
brown ; antenne pectinate inthe male. . . . B. PECTINICORNIS, L. 
II. Prevailing colour of elytra black or greyish ; antennz 
not pectinate in the male. 
i, Thorax at least as long as broad, strongly narrowed 
in front, conical ; antenne entirely black. 
1. Form less elongate; pubescence pomnuaratyely 
scanty . > By OISTi, Hl . 
2. Form more elongate ; pubescence thick, 50 that the 
upper surface is quite grey . . - B. canus, Germ, 
ii. Thorax transverse or subtransverse, 1 more gradually 
narrowed in front; antennz with at least the base 
red or reddish. 
1. Thorax with a more or less distinct tooth at sides. 
A. Legs more or less red, 
s 2 
