Smicronychina. | RHYNCHOPHORA. 281 
having the eyes almost meeting beneath the rostrum which is slender, 
or comparatively slender, and much narrower than head; the tibiw, 
moreover, are armed with a small tooth at apex, and the tenth stria 
of the elytra is not continued behind the posterior coxe, 
SMICRONYSX, Schonherr. 
This genus contains about twenty-five species, which are chiefly 
found in Europe; others occur in Northern Asia and probably in North 
America ; representatives have also been described from Madeira and 
the Canaries, South Africa, the Caucasus district, Cuba, &e. ; they are 
among the smallest of the Rhynchopbora and may be very easily 
passed over, so that in all probability the number of species will be 
found to be much greater than is at present known; they fall, as Bedel 
observes, into two divisions, which will probably have to be separated 
as distinct genera: in one of these the strie of the elytra are obsolete 
and replaced by almost imperceptible lines of points, and in the other 
the elytra are plainly striated and more or less thickly clothed with 
scales which are exceedingly easily abraded ; four species have usually 
been regarded as British, but I do not feel at all sure as to their right 
determination or their synonymy; they are extremely rare insects, so 
that it is hard to obtain the material on which to work the genus ; 
through the kindness, however, of Mr. S. Stevens, Mr. Champion and 
others, I have been enabled to examine some fifty specimens ; M. Bedel 
has also kindly examined several of these for me, and among them he 
has found two specimens of S. cecus, Reich. (cuscute, Bris.), which 
must therefore be added to the British list ; at first, after a careful 
examination with a compound microscope, I eame to the conclusion that 
the specimens standing in our collection as S. céeur and S. pygmeus 
were identical ; however, after an examination of the specimens named 
by M. Bedel, I have modified my first impressions and am of opinion 
that, according to continental ideas, the specimens that we have hitherto 
regarded as S. jungermannie should be referred to S. Reichei, that S. 
Jungermannie and S. cicur are synonymous, and that the specimens 
standing under S. pygmeus in our collections should be referred partly 
to S. Reichei and partly to S. Jungermannie ; in fact, Iam not sure 
whether Curtis’ original specimen of S. pygmeus is not identical with 
S. cecus, in which case the latter name must be sunk; the genus is 
certainly a very puzzling one and the characters of the species ill- 
defined ; the punctuation of the thorax, for instance, is by some authors 
regarded as a valuabie character, but it appears to differ considerably in 
different specimens of the same species ; when quite fresh the insects 
are covered with large clongate-ovate whitish and brownish scales, which 
are arranged thickly on the thorax and in double rows on the inter- 
stices of the elytra; they are very pretty objects under the microscope 
and in some lights are plainly iridescent ; owing to their size and the 
