322 RHYNCHOPHORA. [ Nanophyes. 
NANOPHVYES, Schonherr (Spherula, Steph.). 
This genus contains upwards of fifty species which are rather widely 
distributed throughout the greater part of the Old World; only one has 
been described from America, and this is somewhat doubtful ; twenty- 
nine occur in Europe, of which two are found in Britain; they are very 
small, convex, rather prettily variegated insects with long rostrum and 
antenne, the latter terminating in a somewhat loose and elongate club; the 
thorax is conical and is scareely narrower at base than the base of elytra ; 
the scutellum is inconspicuous ; the prosternum is very short before the 
anterior cox, and the legs are long and slender, with the femora either 
simple or finely denticulate ; one of the chief characters, however, lies 
in the very large trochanters, which, as before stated, cause the genus 
to be in some measure transitionary towards Apion, although its affini- 
ties to Cionus are too great to allow of its being removed from its 
present position ; Gervais, who has described the habits of the larva of 
NV. tamaricis, remarks that the larva, which lives in the ovary of the 
tamarisk, is able to impart to it a jumping motion ; in this it appears 
to resemble the larva of the small exotic moth Carpocapsa saltitans. 
ulemoratsunplessc i ihsarolt’ boie et coals tien yes oa Nee 
Ii. Femora armed on their under surface with one or two dis- 
tinct sharp! spines cu igs ys 0-6 1h Duell) «idextoee isl ‘Tend oul dalm; gINe GEACURES iene 
N. lythri, F. (marmoratus, Goeze). Convex, slightly obovate, 
rather shining, black, clothed with fine greyish pubescence ; elytra with 
an abbreviated fascia and a posterior spot testaceous and covered with 
whitish hairs ; these, however, are somewhat variable ; rostrum long 
and moderately stout, slightly curved, plainly striated, antenne red 
with club dark ; thorax black, sometimes reddish on dise or almost 
entirely reddish, scarcely broader at base than its length, very finely 
punctured ; elytra with deep stri#, interstices somewhat convex; legs 
entirely testaceous, or with the femora more or less black, the latter 
simple. L. 1[-2 mm. 
Damp places; on Lythrum Salicaria (Purple Loosestrife) ; somewhat local but 
usually common where it occurs and sometimes found in profusion; Wimbledon, 
Woking, Lee; Norfolk; Monks Wood, and Wicken Fen, Cambridge; Dover; 
Hastings district; Arundel; Portsmouth district; New Forest; Glanvilles 
Wootton; Devon; Bath; Bristol; Swansea; Bewdley; Repton; Borth, Central 
Wales; Liverpool and Manchester district ; Northumberland and Durham district, 
Heaton Burn, Spindlestone Pond and Hetton Hall, near Belford. Scotland, very 
rare, ‘* Argyllshire, Rev. Geo. Little, Murray’s Cat.’? Ireland, near Waterford, 
Furnish Island, Co. Galway, Coney Island, Lough Neagh, &e. 
N. gracilis, Redt. (geniculatus, Aubé). Very closely allied to the 
preceding, from which it differs in having all its femora furnished with 
two small sharp spines on the underside, between the middle and the 
apex, of which the one nearer the apex is much the smallest ; it may 
also be distinguished by its longer and thinner legs, antenne, and 
