556 Mr. T. Vernon Wollaston on the 
disunited from Mesites proper (as I cannot but think is 
absolutely necessary), these three species must likewise 
form a separate, though closely allied, group. In their 
smaller size, more fusiform outline, and general structure, 
they are of course nearer to Rliopalomesites than to Mesites ; 
nevertheless they have a more decided tendency to posterior- 
attenuation than even the smaller members of the former, 
and (in addition to the subdentate femora to Avhich I have 
just alluded) they possess a very pecidiar feature in the 
fact of their male rostrum being fringed with elongate 
fulvescent hairs, on either side, fr-om the point at which 
the antennae are inserted to the apex. Added to wdiich, 
their rostrum in the opposite sex is less abruptly thickened 
at its extreme base ; their legs are proportionately a trifle 
more incrassated, and the intermediate coxre ^vider apart ; 
and the third joint of their feet is, as in Mesites proper, 
quite unexpanded and simple. 
The species of Odontomesites, so far as I have hitherto 
observed, are attached exclusively to the rotten stems and 
branches of the various Euphorbias. 
\<oQ. PoRTiiETES (Schonherr, Gen. et Spec. Cure. iv. 
1041. 1838). — The genus Port hetes was founded to receive 
a Cossonid (the P. zatiiice, Bohem.) from southern Africa; 
and although I have not been able to procure an example 
for inspection, the published diagnosis appears to be suffi- 
cient to render its peculiarities intelligible. It is described 
as having much the prima facie aspect of Mesites, — the 
ty|3e being a little shorter, but a trifle wnder, than the 
European Cossomis fcrrugineus, and of a blackish hue, 
•with the elytra ferruginous. As in Mesites and its imme- 
diate allies, the rostrum (and to a certain extent, even the 
antennae) vary according to the sex, — it being in the males 
thickened throughout its basal half, witli the anterior por- 
tion narrow and cylindrical (the exact reverse, be it ob- 
served, of Avhat is the case in the forms around JSFesites), 
but in the females incrassated (as in those groups) at the 
extreme base only. Its antenn;i3 (which are abbre^'iated) 
are shorter in the females than in the males, and arc 
Ja^tfZ/y-inserted in the former sex but medially in the 
latter ; and the scape is more powerfully clavate in the 
males than in the females. In its third tarsal joint, too, 
being somewhat expanded and bilobed Porthetcs recedes 
from Mesites and Odontomesites, and is more on the 
Rhopalomesites pattern.] 
