SMICRONYX WEEVILS—ANDERSON 189 
southern Europe and North Africa. Hustache (1935) erected the 
subgenus Afrosmicronyz for a single species found in the French Sudan 
of Africa. 
SYSTEMATIC POSITION 
A detailed consideration of the proper position of the genus Smi- 
cronyz in a natural classification of the family Curculionidae is beyond 
the scope of this study, but a brief consideration of its present position 
is undertaken in the following paragraphs. 
Smicronyx and a few other genera of the tribe Erirhinini (Sharpia 
Tournefort, Topelatus Hustache, Hedychrous Marshall, and Promeco- 
tarsus Casey) have been associated as the subtribe Smicronychi of some 
American authors (as in Blatchley and Leng, 1916) or the tribe Smi- 
cronychini of other authors (as in Junk’s “‘Coleopterorum Catalogus’’). 
The most distinctive features of the Smicronychi (or Smicronychini) 
are the constriction at the base of the rostrum (figs. 3, 7, 9, 14, 21) and 
the connate condition of the tarsal claws (figs. 39-42). 
As treated in this study, the genus Smicronyz includes all the North 
American species in the subtribe Smicronychi, with exception of three 
species which form the genus Promecotarsus Casey. The latter genus 
differs from Smicronyz in having a very long fourth tarsal segment, 
which is subequal to or longer than the first three segments combined 
(fig. 43). There are also differences in the general facies of the two 
genera; the general body shape is more cylindrical than in Smicronyz 
(see fig. 30), and the scales are broader and more imbricate than in 
most of Smicronyz. 
CHARACTERS 
The characters used in this study may represent only a small por- 
tion of the ones which might be of use if their reliability were tested 
on larger numbers of specimens than are presently available for many 
of the species. Most of the characters used to differentiate species 
or groups of species in discussions and in keys are not in quantitative 
terms, but some statements are made concerning the size of species or 
measurements of their parts. The measurements given for each 
species may be examined in connection with these statements. 
In the paragraphs which follow, each of the characters used in de- 
scribing, grouping, or distinguishing the species is discussed separately ; 
however, it must be stressed that itis usually not one or two characters 
alone but a combination of all the characters together which gives 
the species their distinctive appearance. 
Couor: The color of the surface of the various body parts is often 
useful in distinguishing species; e.g., in S. commiztus Dietz the elytra 
are reddish, but in an otherwise similar species, S. utilis Buchanan, 
they are nearly black. However, color is reliable only in normal, ful- 
