Mr. T. V. Wollaston on the Goleoptera of St. Helena. 401 



XLIX. — On the Cohoptera of St. Helena. 

 By T. Veknon Wollaston, M.A., F.L.S. 



[Continued from p. 321.] 



Fam. 18. Curculionidae. 



(Subfam. Cossonides.) 



Genus 27. Stenoscelis. 



Wollaston, Journ. of Ent. i. 141 (1861). 



34. Stenoscelis hylastoides. 



S. subcylindrica, nigra vcl nigro-picea, fere calva, subnitida ; capite 

 prothoraceqiic sat profunde et confertissime punctatis, illo cou- 

 vexo SDquali, hoc subsequali postice recte truncate immarginato, 

 pone medium ad latera subrecto sed ibidem paulo sinuato ; elytiis 

 piceis, striato-punctatis ac rugose seriatim asperatis, asperitate 

 antice plicaturas traiisversas sed postice tubercula parva acuta 

 efformante, interstitiis minutissime punctulatis ; antennis pedibus- 

 que piceis, illarum capitulo horuraque tarsis pallidioribus. 



Long. corp. lin. 1^-2. 



Stenoscelis hylastoides, Woll., loc. cit. 142, pi. 11. f. 1 (1861). 



The examples which I originally described of this cm'ious 

 insect, and for the reception of which I found it necessary to 

 establish a new genus, were taken by the late Mr. Bewicke, 

 in 1860, at the Cape of Good Hope ; and it is an interesting 

 fact, therefore, geographically, that (judging from an exten- 

 sive series which was captured by Mr. Melliss) the species 

 would appear to be common also at St. Helena. After giving, 

 in the '■ Jom-nal of Entomology,' a lengthened diagnosis of the 

 group, I added : — " So very closely does the present insect, at 

 fii-st sight, assimilate Ib/lasfes, that I had regarded it, previous 

 to a critical examination, as an abnormal member of that 

 group, in which the external edge of the tibia? was edentate. 

 But, on closer inquiry, it proves to be undoubtedly one of the 

 Curculionidce^ the entire structure of its slender, toothless, 

 ajncally uncinate tibia?, and its unreceived tarsi, assigning it 

 to that family. From Rhyncolus, however, to which it is 

 clearly related, it recedes completely in its excessively short, 

 broad, thick, and subtriangular rostrum, in its very abbre- 

 viated and differently constructed antenna (which have a})pa- 

 rontly no lateral scrobs for the reception of their scape), in its 

 minute, punctiform scutellum, its more globose, exposed head, 

 and in its longer feet ; and I should consider that the ]Madeiran 

 Hexarth'uni is perhaps its nearest described ally, — tliough in 

 that genus the funiculus is only 6-articulato, whereas in Ste- 

 nosc-dis it is 7-." 



Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 4. Vol. iv. 29 



