“ 
Hypera. | RHYNCHOPHORA, 237 
men impressed with a small round fovea and broadly sinuate on each side 
at apex, 
On various Leguminose, especially Lotus : the larva has been observed on Anthyllis 
vulneraria ; somewhat local and not abundant, but very widely distributed from the 
Midland counties southwards: Wallasey, Cheshire (rare) ; it appears to become rarer 
further north, although Mr. Bold records it as not infrequent in the Northumberland 
and Durham district; Scotland, very rare, Solway district only; Ireland, Armagh 
(Johnson). 
H. nigrirostris, F. (viridis, Prov.). A small and very well-known 
and easily distinguished species; pitchy-black, clothed with uniform 
green (sometimes light brown) hair-like scales, with the head and three 
more or less obsolete lines on thorax lighter; head finely punetured ; 
thorax with the sides rather strongly rounded ; elytra with fine punc- 
tured striz, uniformly clothed with rich green scales, which are some- 
times spotted with fuscous and sometimes entirely brown, raised sete on 
interstices white and distinct ; antenne red with club dark, legs red 
with dark femora. L. 34-4 mm. 
Male with the anterior tibie rather strongly curved, the abdomen 
broadly impressed at base, and the last ventral segment broadly sinuate 
at each side and broadly impressed in middle; the point of insertion 
of the antenne is also a little different in the sexes. 
On various species of clover; often in moss and haystack refuse; the larva has also 
been observed on Ononis spinosa ; abundant and generally distributed throughout the 
kingdom ; it is one of the commonest of the British Curculionidae. 
The V. ononinis (Stevens) is a rather large form of the brown variety: 
of this common insect ; Mr. Stevens tells me that he took all the speci- 
mens (which agree among themselves) ‘‘on Ononis and not on clover 
which nigirostris frequents”; at first sight it looks very different to 
ordinary specimens of the type form. 
LIXINA. 
This tribe contains about a dozen European genera of which four are 
represented in Britain ; they are, for the most part, oblong or elongate- 
oblong insects (except in the case of Larinus), with the rostrum broad and 
stout and, as a rule, nearly as broad as the head; many of the species 
are large and conspicuous and very prettily marked insects ; some of them 
(as for instance Lixus bicolor) have the power of secreting a dusty pollen- 
like matter, of a whitish, yellowish or reddish colour, which occasion- 
ally hides completely the sculpture and pubescence ; according to Bedel 
the insect has the power of renewing this secretion, if accidentally 
rubbed. 
Our four genera may be distinguished as follows, but the characters 
are not altogether satisfactory in one or two cases, 
I. Rostrum very short and stout, about as long as head ; 
tibizs with long raised hairs on their exterior margin . RHINocCYLLUS, Germ. 
