222 Mr.J. Walton on the genera Oxystoma and Magdalis. 
Ulicis to the large females of Ap. atomarium, and the female of 
Ap. Hookeri to that of Ap. Geniste: m the construction of the 
rostrum Ap. fuscirostris resembles Ap. Ervi, Vicia, vicinum and 
vorax, whilst others are more curved and deflexed, as Ap. varipes, 
Ononides of Gyll., &e. Many species both foreign and British 
are clothed more or less with hairs or bristles, and some with 
elongate scales of various forms, as Ap. Malve, vernale, fusciros- 
tris, Ulicis and Genista, but these characters are only regarded 
as specific, not generic. All the species of the genus Apion have 
the rostrum with two oblique fossulets or oblong foveze more or 
less deep, terminating outwardly at the sides and inwardly be- 
neath the rostrum ; their external edges or margins are more or 
less incrassated or dilated, and are placed at a greater or less 
distance from the base; the antennz are inserted within the 
fossulets at the under sides, and always in the same relative 
situation ; the form of the rostrum, the structure of the antenne, 
together with the sexual dissimilarities m those organs are so ex- 
tremely anomalous and discrepant in this natural group of insects, 
that it is very difficult to find good or fixed characters for the 
foundation of genera; the species are held together by general 
habit, and especially by a peculiarity in the form of the trochan- 
ters first described by Kirby*. 
The three species comprised in the genus Oxystoma are fur- 
nished with a remarkable process at the base of the rostrum be- 
neath, which I shall endeavour to describe under their respective 
names, and which, as far as I know, has not been noticed before ; 
but these appendages or processes are not confined to thosé spe- 
cies, for Apion Carduorum participates, and others in the genus 
Apion have modifications of the same, but not so fully developed ; 
Oxys. fuscirostris, Ulicis and Geniste differ however from all the 
species of the genus Apion that I have examined in not having 
antennal grooves at the base of the rostrum beneath, or under the 
head, as in Apion Cracce, Pomone and subulatum ; these charac- 
ters may be considered of sufficient importance to constitute a 
new genus, and I therefore leave Ovystoma as it 1s. 
1. O. fuscirostris, Fab., Steph. 
Apion melanopum, Marsh., Kirb. 
— fuscirostris, Germ., Schonh. 
This insect is sparmgly clothed with whitish and cinnamon- 
coloured elongate scales, which are distinct and well-defined when 
magnified. ‘The rostrum is thickened at the base above, and 
dilated on both sides at the pomts of insertion of the antenne, 
and has two deep oblong fovee very near the base beneath, 
* Linn. Trans. vol. x. p. 347. 
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