570 APPENDIX. 



accepted, and prepared a box, which was taken by Mr. Rodwell, along 

 with a letter, which is placed first in Mr. Kirby's packet of mine of 1805, 

 and which it is necessary to give here to make his reply intelligible. 



"Drypool, Hull, 26th August, 1805. 



"Sir, Your friend Mr. Eodwell, knowing me to be a smatterer in that 

 branch of natural history to the advancement of which, in Britain, you have so 

 largely contributed, told me the other day that he was about to visit your 

 neighbourhood, and said he would be glad to convey to you any duplicates of 

 insects I might have, that I judged might possibly be new to you. I embraced 

 his offer with pleasure, and I have accordingly sent a few insects which I have 

 reason to think scarce, or not described in Entomologia Britannica.' If they 

 are already known to you, as perhaps the major part are, I must beg you to 

 take the will for the deed. Such as are new, if any be so, I request your accept- 

 ance of, as a small return for the high gratification I have derived from the 

 perusal of your admirable papers in the ' Linnean Transactions,' and the intro- 

 duction to your Monograph of English Bees.' From that work itself I have 

 not been able to derive the advantage which I have no doubt I shall reap from 

 it when I have made a greater progress in entomology. At present, the order 

 Coleoptera, to the investigation of which Mr. Marsham's excellent work, in- 

 cluding so many of your discoveries, affords such facility, exclusively engages 

 my attention. But I proceed to my immediate object, which is, to make a few 

 short remarks on the insects I send. 



" No. 1. is a Curculio belonging to Section A. b.** in E. B., which I do not 

 find described there. I found it the other day in great numbers, feeding upon 

 young oak trees, the leaves of which it corrodes in the same manner as Chryso- 

 mela viteUince, &c. do those of willows. From its habitat, it should be C.fer- 

 rugineus of E. B. ; but as neither its head, rostrum, nor knees are black, it 

 cannot be that, and there appears to me no other in the section with which it at 

 all accords. C. rufus I have, which is very different. May it not be C. Betu- 

 leti of Panzer's 'Entomologia Germanica?' which is the mere likely, as I did 

 find a few of the same insect upon Betulus Alnus, in the neighbourhood of the 

 oaks upon which it chiefly was. It also strikes me that it, as well as Panzer's C. 

 Betuleti, may possibly be C. Quercus of Linne, if that properly belongs to the 

 Saltatorii section, which Fabricius seems to believe by his synonyming it with 

 his C. Viminalis, for I do not believe that C. Quercus of Linne, which is 'pallide 

 flavus,' even though belonging to this section, can be synonymous with C. 

 Viminalis, which if that be, and doubtless it is, C. rufus of E. B., is of a rufous 

 colour, with the fore part of the abdomen, as well as the eyes, black. Fabricius 

 appears to me extremely lax in his definition of colour; at least, if the insects 

 he describes from be of the same colour as English ones. Neither (7. Alni nor 

 C. Viminalis are of a testaceous colour. C. No. 1., when first caught, has, in a 

 certain light, a large triangular spot at the base of the elytra, of a lighter shade 

 than the rest. 



" No. 2., which has also incrassated hind thighs, appears to me undescribed in 

 E. B. : indeed if I am correct in my supposition, it does not belong to any 

 section there; for, as far as I can see with the deepest magnifier I possess, its 

 antennae are not broken, but entire, though of this, owing to its minuteness, I 

 am not positive. However that may be, I see no Curculio in Section A. b** of 

 E. B. which, like this, is wholly black, with reddish antennae. I found it on 

 some species of willow, and then on Mespilus Oxyacantha. 



" No. 3. is doubtless Curculio variabilis of Fabricius and Panzer. Whether 

 Mr. Marsham had not seen it, or he deemed it a variety of C. nigrirostris, I know 

 not, but it is not described in E. B. That it is a variety of that I can scarcely 

 believe, though Paykull, on his usual plan of making as many varieties as pos- 

 sible, chooses to consider it so, I sent latelv to Mr. Marsham, who has honoured 



