130 Mr. T. V. Wollaston on a new genus of British Curculioniche. 



pseudotetrameris, articulo antepenultimo reliquis paulo latiore; 

 ultimo flexuoso, clavato, unguiculis sat magnis simplicibus 

 munito. 



A irevre, quinque, et apOpov, artus. 



The very interesting little insect from which the above struc- 

 tural diagnosis has been drawn out, although an undoubted 

 member of the Cossonides of Schonherr, is so singularly formed 

 as regards its /we-jointed funiculus, that it may perhaps be looked 

 upon as connective between that subfamily and the Rhyncopho- 

 rides, — in which a like number of articulations (though six is 

 the normal quantity) occasionally obtains. It is, I believe, the 

 only representative of the Cossonides hitherto described in which 

 less than seven joints to the funiculus has been noticed ; and it 

 cannot but be received therefore as a very important addition, 

 not only to our native fauna, but to science at large, — as intro- 

 ducing a totally new modification into that immediate depart- 

 ment of the Curculionidce. In its general contour and habit it is 

 more suggestive of a minute Cossonus than of anything else, its 

 glabrous deeply-sculptured surface and slender subcylindrical 

 body, in conjunction with its medially-inserted antennae and its 

 basally- distant anterior legs, bespeaking a close relation with 

 that group : nevertheless (in addition to the peculiarity of its 

 funiculus, in which it recedes from it in toto) its rostrum is of 

 perfectly equal breadth throughout (not being dilated at its ter- 

 mination), and the apex of its elytra is somewhat acuminated and 

 rather curiously developed, — each of them having a tendency to 

 be separately rounded off, and subrecurved, at its extreme mar- 

 gin (in a precisely similar manner to what we observe in many 

 of the Apions). Its discovery is due to my nephew, H. W. Hut- 

 ton, Esq., of Spridlington near Lincoln, who captured four spe- 

 cimens in the vicinity of Exeter during November of 1853. It 

 may be characterized, specifically, as follows : — 



Pentarthrum Huttoni, Woll. 



P. angusto-subcylindricum ferrugineo-piceum subnitidum gla- 

 brum, rostro ad basin profundius sed apicem versus leviter 

 punctato, prothorace elongato valde profunde punctato, mox 

 ante basin latiore, elytris rugulosis punctato-striatis, inter- 

 stitiis minutissime seriatim punctulatis, antennis pedibusque 

 paulo pallidioribus et rufescentioribus. 



Long. corp. lin. 1|. 



P. narrow and subcylindrical, pale rufo- (or ferrugineo-) 

 piceous (the prothorax however being, apparently, rather darker 

 than the elytra and the apical portion of the rostrum), slightly 

 shining and glabrous. Rostrum of equal breadth throughout ; 

 somewhat coarsely punctured at its base, but lightly so towards 



