116 SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT 



with about three dorsal transverse wrinkles ; joints 5-9 subequal, as long as 1-3 together, 

 twice as long as 4; 10-12 diminishing in length, sliglitly swollen, the anus retracted : G 

 very small 3-jointed thoracic legs (/), the terminal joint being a mere bristle : stig- 

 mata quite distinct and brown, the tirst pair much tlie largest, between the fold of 

 joints 2 and 3 ; the others on anterior fifth of joints 4-11, the last pair more dorsal than 

 the rest. Head pale yellow, darker around mouth ; rounded, more or less bent over the 

 breast, with sparse, stiff, pale hairs springing from elevated points : ocelli, none ; anten- 

 nas not visible, unless a dusky prominence lying close between mandibles and maxilloe 

 be called such ; labrum (i) small with two depressions and other inequalities, the margins 

 slightly angular, allowing jaws to closely fit around it; jaws (j) stout, triangular, the 

 inner margin produced at middle into a larger and smaller tooth, and with a slight ex- 

 cavation near tip ; maxillae {k) long, with but a short, horny cardinal piece, the palpi 

 apparently 2-jointed and with difficulty resolved, on account of three or four other 

 prominences around them ; garnished on the inside with a close row of stiff hairs and 

 on the outside with two stouter hairs ; labium (A) large, obovul, the palpi placed in front 

 and 2-jointed. 



Eight specimens examined. 



Pupa. — Average length 0.40 inch, witli the antenna? curled back over the thorax, 

 the seven or eight terminal joints, each wfth a more or less distinct, forwardly- 

 directed, brown thorn; the snout lying on the breast and varying according to sex ; 

 abdominal joints with a more or less distinct row of small thorns on the posterior dorsal 

 edge, the last joint with a more prominent thorn directed backward in a line with the 

 body. 



Four specimens examined. 



The entomological reader will notice that, in its larval and pupal 

 characters, this insect shows strong affinities with the true Snout- 

 beetles (Curculionidce)^ and there can no longer be any doubt as to 

 the real position of the Brenthians, in a natural system of classifica- 

 tion. They have rightly been considered to form a tribe (Brenthi- 

 des) of the Snout-beetles proper, but are placed in a family by them- 

 selves by modern coleopterists, and bring up the rear of Mr. G. R. 

 Crotch's new "Check list of the Coleoptera of America, north of 

 Mexico." Our species, under consideration, is treated of by Harris, 

 Fitch and other earlier writers, under the vernacular name of '^Nortli- 

 •ern Brenthus," and the scientific name of Brenthus (or Arrlienodes) 

 ■septentrionis Herbst. It has been described under several specific 

 names, as onaxillossus by Olivier; 7n inutus hyDrury. This last has 

 priority over all other names, but as the description was made from a 

 diminutive individual, subsequent authors had doubts as to the spe- 

 cies intended, and very generally ignored the name in favor of that 

 given by Herbst. Dr. G. H. Horn, as late as 1872, in a paper on the 

 BrenthidcB of the U. S ,* adopted Olivier's name; but there seems to 

 be no question that the species described by Drury was our north3rn 

 species. Hence, according to the strict law of priority, his name 



* Tnius. Am. Eut. Stic. , aoI. iv., p. Vil . 



