Suarp—On New Zealand Coleoptera. 417 
This insect is very similar in facies to the European genus Phyllobius, from 
which it differs by the development of the pterygia, and also by the fact that 
whereas in Phyllobius the tip of the hind tibia is edge-like and bears only one 
series of sete, it is here minutely truncate and bears two closely approximated 
series of ciliz, so that the ‘ corbeilles caverneuses” of Lacordaire are here 
present in a rudimentary* state, though this structure is so minute that the 
corbeilles would be said to be open by Lacordaire had he known the insect. 
There are also other important differences from Phyllobius, such as that in 
Protophormus the hind coxze are widely separated; the mentum is small but 
fills the buccal cavity ; the mandibular scar is present; the front coxze are small 
and contiguous, and placed not very far from the front margin of the prosternum, 
which is not all emarginate; the metasternum is rather short, about as long as 
the first ventral segment in the middle, the second ventral segment is rather short. 
Although the insect does not much resemble Otiorhynchus in appearance, 
yet it appears very closely allied thereto, the only character in fact which dis- 
tinguishes, so far as I see, the two with certainty being the slightly cavernous 
corbeilles of Protophormus. 
Protophormus gracilis, n. sp.—Angustior, fusco griseoque squamosus, plus 
minusve variegatus, antennis rufis; thorace subcylindrico, medio vix dilatato, 
longitudine vix latiore. Long. 5 m.m. (Plate xm, fig. 9.) 
Antenne elongate, second joint longer and stouter than the third, eighth 
joint about as long as broad, club large, very elongate oval; rostrum not 
grooved, the front of the eye placed about half the distance between the 
front of the thorax and the insertion of the antenne ; thorax much _nar- 
rower than the elytra, only very slightly broader in the middle, and minutely 
narrowed in front, the surface densely squamose, not at all uneven or rugose; 
scutellum small; elytra variable in the colour of their clothing, usually brown, 
mottled with gray, but sometimes nearly concolorous, there remaining always 
amore or less distinct pallid mark at each side near the hind femur; they bear 
strie of fine punctures and a few fine sete, and the fifth interstice is a little 
raised or subnodulose in front of the apex: this is acuminate; the front 
tibize are flexuose inwardly, and mucronate at the apex. 
Greymouth. Helms, No. 23. Prof. Hutton found a closely allied species in Otago, and sent me a 
good series of the sexes in 1879, this is, I have no doubt, the insect described by Broun as Catoptes 
cuspidatus ; the female is well distguished from P. gracilis by the produced apices of the elytra, and 
by the bare tubercle on the thorax; these characters, however, are not present in the male, and this 
sex can only be distinguished from P. gracilis by the thorax being rather less cylindric, and haying the 
sides a little more dilated in the middle. 
* Ido not mean by this phrase to imply tha’ this is a primitive condition, on the contrary, I think 
it probable that the cavernous apex is a lower form than the laminate. 
3K 2 
