Genera of the CossonidcE. 539 
(wliicli for the most part is perfectly bald) is more or less 
alutaceous, being in some instances so conspicuously so as 
to appear nearly opake. Their prothoraces are more or 
less conical, and unmargined along the posterior edge, 
their scutella are generally quite untraceable, their pro- 
sternum is very distinctly carinulated behind the anterior 
cox£e, their legs are a little wider apart at the base than is 
the case in the true Phloeopliagi (the hinder pair being 
especially remote), and the first joint of their feet is less 
evidently elongated. 
42. Phlceophagus (Schonherr, Gen. Cure. iv. 1047. 
1838). — The genus Phlceophagus has often been a good 
deal confused with Rhyncolus, certain species having been 
assigned by different authors to either group according as 
their rostra happened to be either slender or robust ; and 
indeed if the gracility of that organ were their main dis- 
tinguishing feature, it would perhaps be difficult to draw 
a line of positive demarcation between the two, — for there 
are undoubted members of both genera which have their 
rostrum narrow, and others which have it incrassated. 
Yet on the average the rostrum is certainly both longer 
and slenderer in Phlceophagus than it is in Rhyncolus. 
There are other characters, however, which woiild tend 
(according to the arrangement which seems to me to be 
most natural for the Cossonicles) to place the groups in 
question far asunder ; and perhaps none is more important 
than the presence or absence of a scutellum, — which in 
Phlceophagus is either altogether untraceable, or else is so 
minute and punctiform as to be with difficulty detected. 
The Phlceophagi also are more convex and ovate than the 
RhyncoU ; their prothorax is usually less developed, but 
more rounded at the sides; their metasternum is appre- 
ciably shorter ; their anterior cox£e are more approximated 
(indeed the front ones are nearly contiguous) ; and their 
antennre and legs are slenderer, — the former of which, 
likewise, as well as the tarsi, are generally more lengthened. 
The Phlceophagi moreover have the second joint of their 
funiculus and the basal one of their feet longer than is 
the case in Rhyncolus, and also the club of their antennae 
more enlarged and annulated ; and their third tarsal arti- 
culation is for the most part minutely bilobed, rather than 
simple ; — though this character, last mentioned, is, in both 
genera, a variable one. The Phlceophagi are principally 
TRANS. ENT. SOC. 1873. — PART IV. (OCT.) Q Q 
