Genera of the Cossonidce. 539 



(which for the most part is perfectly bald) is more or less 

 alutaceous, being in some instances so conspicuously so as 

 to appear nearly opake. Their prothoraces are more or 

 less conical, and unmargined along the posterior edge, 

 their scutella are generally quite untraceable, their pro- 

 sternum is very distinctly carinulated behind the anterior 

 coxae, their legs are a little wider apart at the base than is 

 the case in the true Phlceophagi (the hinder pair being 

 especially remote), and the first joint of their feet is less 

 evidently elongated. 



42. PHLCEOPHAGUS (Schonherr, Gen. Cure. iv. 1047. 

 1838). The genus Phlceophagus has often been a good 

 deal confused with Rhyncolus, certain species having been 

 assigned by different authors to either group according as 

 their rostra happened to be either slender or robust ; and 

 indeed if the gracility of that organ were their main dis- 

 tinguishing feature, it would perhaps be difficult to draw 

 a line of positive demarcation between the two, for there 

 are undoubted members of both genera which have their 

 rostrum narrow, and others which have it incrassated. 

 Yet on the average the rostrum is certainly both longer 

 and slenderer in Phlceophagus than it is in Rhyncolus. 

 There are other characters, however, which would tend 

 (according to the arrangement which seems to me to be 

 most natural for the Cossonides) to place the groups in 

 question far asunder ; and perhaps none is more important 

 than the presence or absence of a scutellum, which in 

 Phlceophagus is either altogether untraceable, or else is so 

 minute and punctiform as to be with difficulty detected. 

 The Phlceophagi also are more convex and ovate than the 

 Rhyncoli ; their prothorax is usually less developed, but 

 more rounded at the sides; their metasternum is appre- 

 ciably shorter ; their anterior coxae are more approximated 

 (indeed the front ones are nearly contiguous) ; and their 

 antennae and legs are slenderer, the former of which, 

 likewise, as well as the tarsi, are generally more lengthened. 

 The Phlceophagi moreover have the second joint of their 

 funiculus and the basal one of their feet longer than is 

 the case in Rhyncolus, and also the club of their antennas 

 more enlarged and annulated ; and their third tarsal arti- 

 culation is for the most part minutely bilobed, rather than 

 simple ; though this character, last mentioned, is, in both 

 genera, a variable one. The Phlceophagi are principally 



TKANS. ENT. SOC. 1873. PART IV. (OCT.) . Q Q 



