296 Mr. J. Walton on the genera Pissodes, Hypera, tyc. 



anteriorly, dilated and rounded at the sides posteriorly, convex 

 above, closely rugose-punctate, a slender abbreviated cannula 

 on the middle of the back, and two remote foveoke on the disc. 

 Elytra elongate, punctate-striate, the punctures deep, oblong, 

 remote, very unequal, small towards the base and apex, and much 

 larger in the middle ; the interstices closely rugulose, alternately 

 broader and elevated; sprinkled with obscure lutescent scales, 

 and with a broad unequal abbreviated fascia behind the middle 

 composed of flavescent scales. Legs elongate, pale rufo-piceous, 

 femora and tibiae annulated with whitish scales in the middle. 

 Length 4 lines. 



There is one specimen of this insect, reputed to be British, in 

 the collection of the National Museum. 



Genus Hypera, Germ. (1821), Curt., Steph., Westw. 

 Phytonomus, Schonh. (1826)*, Spry et Shuck. 

 Great confusion has hitherto prevailed in this country as to the 

 specific identity of the insects of this genus : although our cata- 

 logues contain from twenty-nine to thirty-one specific names, of 

 which seven have been sunk into varieties and twenty- two de- 

 scribed as specifically distinct by Mr. Stephens in his ' Manual 

 of British Coleoptera/ yet, after a most rigorous comparative ex- 

 amination of numerous specimens, I have not been able to iden- 

 tify more than fourteen distinct species ; I have therefore ven- 

 tured to go further, by reducing eight more names into syno- 

 nyms or varieties. It appears to me that British entomologists 

 have relied too much on the colour and markings of the scales, 

 and on the colour of the different organs of the body, as specific 

 distinctions, but these characters in a majority of the species are 

 extremely variable and consequently unsafe to depend upon. I 

 have corrected the names of a few insects by means of well-au- 

 thenticated foreign specimens, and in accordance with the autho- 

 rities so often named in my former notes, which will I hope have 

 a tendency to establish the nomenclature upon a uniform and 

 permanent foundation. 



1. Hypera punctata, Fab., et auct. alior. 



Cure, medius et austriacus, Marsh., Kirb. MSS. 



2. H. fasciculata, Herbst, et auct. alior. 

 — sticticus, Kirb. MSS. 



Very rare and local : it has not occurred of late years to my 



* I cannot find any reason assigned by Schonherr for changing tbe name 

 Hypera; I have therefore, in accordance with the just law of priority, followed 

 those British authors who have retained it ; yet it is rather remarkable that 

 Germar himself, with many other continental entomologists, have adopted 

 Phytonomus. Latreille employed a similar name (Hyperia) for a genus of 

 Crustacea, which occurs for the first time in ' Cuv. Reg. Anim.' iv. 1829. 



