156 RHYNCHOPHORA. [ Apion. 
(Stephens) ; the male is rarer than the female. Walton says of the species, “very 
rare in the south of England, but I found it in Yorkshire in profusion on the black- 
thorn (Prunus spinosa), growing on a hedge bank by the side of a ditch full of 
rushes in a marshy situation.” 
A. atomarium, Kirby (pusilium, Germ.). The smallest British 
species; oval, short, dull black, clothed with very distinct greyish 
pubescence; head short, finely striated between eyes which are large ; 
rostrum cylindrical, curved, with fine diffuse punctuation ; antenne 
inserted towards base, black with the scape often more or less testaceous; 
thorax transverse, convex, rounded at sides and narrowed in front, 
thickly and rather strongly punctured, with a fine short stria before 
scutellum ; scutellum very small, convex and glabrous; elytra short-oval 
and convex, rounded behind, with the shoulders not strongly marked ; 
strie strong and plainly punctured, interstices rather narrow, shagreened ; 
legs black, short. L. 13-1{ mm. 
Male usually smaller with the rostrum shorter and more strongly 
pubescent. 
Chalky places; on Thymus serpyllum ; very local, but not uncommon where it 
occurs; Chatham, Birch Wood, Mickleham, Reigate, Caterham, Kenley (Surrey) ; 
Dover; Arundel; Whitsand° Bay, near Plymouth; Holyhead; Ashwicken, near 
Cambridge. 
Group 13. 
Very small species with the sulet of the elytra as broad as the tnter- 
stices (on Salix). 
A. minimum, Herbst. (velox, Kirby, foraminosum, Gyll). Oval, 
moderately elongate, dull-black, with fine and very scanty pubescence ; 
head broad and very short, forehead strongly punctured, eyes large and 
slightly prominent; rostrum stout, rather smooth and shining, scarcely 
as long as head and thorax, finely punctured ; antennz black, sometimes 
obscurely reddish at base, inserted a little before middle of rostrum; 
thorax scarcely as long as broad, strongly and deeply punctured, with a 
small fovea at base; scutellum triangular, not furrowed; elytra oval, 
moderately convex, subparallel, but slightly enlarged behind middle, 
with the shoulders rounded and not marked, and with very broad and 
strongly and catenulately punctured strixw; the interstices are narrower 
than the strize and somewhat raised, and are transversely shagreened ; 
legs rather long, black, anterior femora stout, tarsal claws with a small 
tooth at base; size variable. L. 13-2 mm. 
Male with the rostrum longer than in female. 
On various species of Salix, in May and June; very local and, asa rule, rare, but 
occasionally found in numbers; Hampstead, Wimbledon, Coombe Wood, Woking, 
Dorking, Maidstone, Esher, Horsell (Walton, Stevens, Power, Champion and 
others); Dover (E. G. Hall); Bretby Wood, near Repton (Garneys) ; Scotland, 
very rare Solway district, “ Raehills, Rev. W. Little,” Murray’s Cat.; according to 
Wencker the larva feeds in a gall produced by a Nematus on the leaves of Salix 
