392 RHYNCHOPHORA. [ Cossonus. 
antenne and legs pitchy red or ferruginous ; rostrum more than twice 
as long as head with a broad quadrangular depressed dilatation at apex ; 
thorax a little longer than broad, very feebly constricted just before 
apex, comparatively finely and not closely punctured ; elytra with deep 
punctured striz, interstices smooth, slightly convex, a little broader 
than the striae; femora robust, tibie widened internally in middle. 
L. 4-6 mm. 
Male with the dilated part of the rostrum rather shorter than in 
female, and the abdomen broadly impressed at base and clothed with 
yellow pilose pubescence. 
Female with the abdomen not pilose. 
In decaying willows, elms, oaks, &c.; very local and, as a rule, not common ; 
Highgate (Power, in plenty); Greenwich; Battersea; Richmond Park (Champion); 
Hampstead (S. Stevens); Plymouth and Exeter; Swansea; Sherwood Forest 
(under oak bark (Blatch)). 
As the name C. linearis has been adopted for three different species 
belonging to the genus, I have thought it best to drop it altogether. 
RHOPALOMESITES, Wollaston. 
The genus Mesites, with which the single British species has usually 
been united, contains about fifteen species which are widely distributed 
in the Canaries, Madeira, Ceylon, St. Vincent, &c.; the genus Rhopalo- 
mesites, containing the single species R. Tardy, is slightly less cylin- 
drical than Mesites, and somewhat more convex, with the eyes more 
approximate, the antenne more elongate, the club much larger and 
abrupt, the legs rather longer, the thorax more oblong and the rostrum 
of the male considerably longer and more slender ; the genus may at 
once be known by having the rostrum very different in the sexes, and 
by having the antenne inserted near the base in the male, and consider- 
ably in front of middle, where the rostrum is dilated, in the female. 
The species is found very locally in hollies and beech trees, especially in 
Ireland. 
R. Tardyi, Curt. Elongate, rather depressed, extremely variable 
in size in both sexes, not very shining; antenne and legs ferruginous ; 
upper surface with very fine, scarcely evident, whitish pubescence ; 
rostrum moderately curved, very different in the sexes; thorax much 
longer than broad, with sides narrowed in front and constricted before 
apex, closely and rather strongly punctured with more or less distinct 
traces of a central raised smooth line which sometimes appears as a 
smooth patch in the centre; elytra with moderately deep, but not 
plainly punctured, strie, interstices broader than the strie, flat, rugosuly 
punctured ; femora angled beneath. L. 6-12 mm. 
Male with the rostrum narrower than in female, angularly dilated 
just before base, where the antenne are inserted, punctured at base, 
and smooth and shining in front of the insertion of the antenne, 
