COLEOPTERA. 87 



tulcB^ &c. — although small are not less attractive by their golden 

 or silvery-green colour. In some the mandibles of the males 

 are narrow, pointed, and project forwards. This charater is 

 common to species foreign to Europe. The subgenus 



Leptosomus, Schoenh., 



Although formed of a single species — Curcidio acuminatus. Fab, 

 Oliv. — presents such isolated characters, that it may still be retained 

 as a subgenus. The head is elongated itosteriorly and the snout is 

 very short. The thorax is almost cylindrical. The elytra terminate 

 in the manner of diverging spines. The antennte are short. 



We now pass to another subgenus, that of 



Leptocerus, 



Which differs from the first in the two anterior legs, which are lar- 

 ger than the following one, with the thick thighs, arcuated tibije, and 

 the tarsi frequently dilated and ciliated. 'I'he antennae are usually 

 long and slender. The thorax is almost globular or triangular. The 

 abdomen is hardly wider than the thorax. 



These Insects are most abundant in Brazil, and several analogous 

 species are found in the Isle of France, or that of Bourbon. Others 

 inhabit Africa *. 



A fourth subgenus, that of 



Phtllobius, 

 Will include other Brevirostres of the same division, also furnished 

 with wings, but in wliich the lateral sulci of the proboscis are straight, 

 short, and even consist of a simple fossula. To this we unite various 

 genera of M. Scliosnlierr — his Phi/llobius, Macrorynus, Myllocerus, 

 Cyphicerus, Amblirhinus and Phytoscopus. 



Those Brevirostres, in which the penultimate joint of the tarsi 

 is bilobate, but tliat are apterous and almost always destitute 

 of a scutellum, will form other subgenera, viz., Othiorhynchus 

 and Omias, in which the antennal sulci are straight ; and Pachyr- 

 HYNCHUs, Psalidium, Thylacites, and Syzygops, in which those 

 sulci are curved. The Othiorhynci are distinguished from Omias 

 by the auricular dilitation of the lateral and inferior portion of 

 the proboscis, which gives the insertion to the antennae ; the Syzy- 

 gops, or Cyclops of Dejean, by their eyes, almost united superiorly ; 

 the Psalidia by their salient and arcuated or crescent-shaped mandi- 

 bles. The Thylacites are removed from the Pachyrhynci by their at- 



* The genera Prosfomvs, Leptocerus, Crufopus, Leprnpus, Hadroinerus, Hybsonotus, 

 of Schoenherr. The Hybsonotes have the body proportionally narrower, and more 

 elongated ; the proboscis almost as long as the head and thorax ; the antennal 

 sulci almost straight, but oblique, and the thorax lobate anteriorly. The Leptoceri 

 are distingiiished from all the others, by the length of the first joint of the antennie, 

 the end of which when thrown back extends beyond the head ; in the other genera 

 it extends to but little, if at all beyond the eyes. The Cratopi are peculiar to the 

 Isles of France, Bourbon, and some other islands of the Indian Ocean. Their thorax 

 is trapezoidal, and their abdomen in the form of a reversed triangle. The genus 

 Prustomus has, perhaps, been established on males only, their mandibles being some- 

 times larger than those of the females. 



