THE ENTOMOLOGIST. tt 
transverse, and acuminate at the lower end; mandibles stout, 
short, more prominent in Brachycerus, where they have the 
lower margin more produced into a cutting edge; the front 
surface is rough and somewhat angular, but without any trace 
of the rounded scar seen in Otiorhynchide; the scutellum is 
scarcely visible; the elytra, as above mentioned, are ventri- 
cose, irregularly tuberculate or costate, very much extended 
on the flanks, so as to cover the side pieces of the mesothorax 
and metathorax, greatly deflexed behind; the lateral groove 
of the inner face is deep and narrow, becoming wider and 
obsolete behind; the dorsal segments are membranous, 
except the last, which is corneous, and divided in the male 
into two, as in Curculionide ; the ventral segments are sepa- 
rated by deep sutures, of which the first is sinuate; the 3rd 
and 4th segments are shorter than the others; the lateral 
extension upwards is narrow, and but slightly wider behind ; 
the front coxe are contiguous, prominent, and subconical; 
the tibiz are not dilated; the spurs are small, fixed, pro- 
jecting inwards; the tarsi 4-jointed, narrow, setose, and feebly 
concave beneath (Brachycerus); pubescent, concave, and 
emarginate beneath (Microcerus); claws large, simple, distant. 
BYRSOPIDA. 
The third of the anomalous families has a more general 
distribution, and is represented in our Fauna by the genus 
Thecesternus, which forms a separate tribe, distinguished 
from the other tribes by the prosternal groove for the 
reception of the beak, not extended as far as the front coxe. 
These insects are epigeal, rough, and dull coloured, with the 
elytra widely embracing the flanks, but not strongly deflexed 
behind, concealing the side pieces of the trunk; the beak is 
very short, not thickened at tip, nor emarginate at the 
middle; the antennal grooves descend perpendicularly, and 
form a gular constriction; the antennx are unusually short, 
imperfectly geniculate; the scape as long as the first and 
second joints of the funiculus; the club elongate-oval, 
pointed, distinctly annulated; eyes transverse, pointed 
beneath ;* mandibles stout, short, front surface curved and 
* Jekel, 1. c. 1864, 548, describes the group as being Adelognathes 
eyclophthalmes. Lacordaire (Gen. Col. vi. 293 sqq.) places them in Phane- 
rognathes, and describes the eyes as acuminate below, in which he is correct. 
