386 Mr. T. Vernon Wollaston 07i 



perne hand observandis), necnon ad basin externam com- 



presso-ampliatis, preeter cajteras, discedit. 

 A TTEi'Ts, quinque, et renvo), seco. 

 In the anomalous construction of its minute, deeply-sunken and 

 almost obsolete eyes, as well as in its escutellate apterous body, 

 connate elytra and 5-articulated funiculus, the curious weevil from 

 which the above details have been drawn is coincident with the Ma- 

 deiran and Canarian Mcsoxeni ; nevertheless, in its much broader, 

 shorter and less arcuated rostrum (which is of equal breadth 

 throughout,* not being in the least degree widened at the point of 

 insertion of the antennae), as also in its more abbreviated and much 

 less apically implanted antennas (which spring from rather behind 

 the middle, instead of at a considerable distance before it), its hairy 

 surface, the outer basal-enlargement of its four hinder tibial- 

 hooks, its almost undilated antepenultimate tarsal joint, and its 

 extraordinary burrowing habits, it altogether recedes from those 

 insects. Indeed there can be no doubt that it is far more inti- 

 mately allied, in reality, to the curious Lcipommata calcaratum from 

 Porto Santo, — with which, in its unexapanded k&t, pilose body (a 

 most remarkable feature for an insect which resides deep under- 

 ground, beneath shifting sand), and sub-fossorial mode of life, it 

 entirely agrees ; nevertheless, in Le'ipommnla the funiculus is 7- 

 (instead of 5-) articulate, the eyes are quite absent, the antennas 

 (although short) are longer and slenderer, and are inserted a little 

 heforc the middle of the rostrum (instead of somewhat behind it), 

 the scutellum is just traceable beneath the microscope, the hinder- 

 tibias are sub-flexuose, the tibial-unci are less acute, and the four 

 posterior ones very much less decurved'j' (so that they are quite 

 apparent when the insect is viewed from above) and without any 

 trace of the disproportioned development at their outer base. 



* In this respect, as well as in tlie submedial position of its antenna; in botli 

 sexes (no less than in its 5-jointed funiculus), it agrees better with Pentarlhrum 

 than with Mesoxenus ; but the fully developed eyes and sculella of the Peiitarihra, 

 in conjunction with their linear, glabrous bodies (the most essential feature of the 

 typical Cossonides), smaller and ordinary tibial-hook (which is not enlarged into 

 an obtuse, compressed process at ils outer base), and their common lignivorous 

 habits, will at once separate them fiom the whole of these blind, pilose, sub- 

 fossorial, sand-infesting Curculionklse, 



t The sudden manner in which the four hinder tibial-unci are decurved in 

 Pentatewnus is very remarkable, — being, in consequence, quite concealed from 

 view unless the insect be examined laterally ; whilst the compressed development 

 at the base of these unci is, on the other hand, so apparent, that it seems prima 

 facie as though it terminated the tibiae, and that there was no hook beyond it. 



