Mr. J. Walton on the genus Sitona. 231 
guished by its smaller size and less distinct colouring, of which 
however there are many transitions*.”” Mr. Stephens has in his 
cabinet examples of Curc. flavescens and C. nigriclavis from the 
Marshamian collection ; these I have recently examined and com- 
pared with the descriptions, which leave no. doubt on my mind as 
to their authenticity and identity ; the former is a pale immature 
variety, and the latter is black, with the tibie and tarsi rufous. 
According to Germar, Cure. caninus of Fab. is a variety of Cure. 
lineatus of Linn.+ ; and it appears from the Banksian cabinet 
that Fabricius has mixed this species with C. lineatus ; conse- 
quently the Fabrician name Cure. caninus, used by Gyllenhal and 
Stephens as the oldest, must necessarily be changed, not for oc- 
topunctatus of Germ. (a new name, and denoting a different in- 
sect), but for the next oldest, either for flavescens or nigriclavis 
of Marsh. I have preferred flavescens because it is the first-de- 
scribed, and I think equally appropriate and more current, being 
synonymized by Gyll., Germ. and Schonh. without a note of in- 
terrogation. 7 
This insect unquestionably approaches extremely close to Si. 
punceticollis, end 1 formerly had a doubt whether it was suffi- 
ciently distinct {, but after a lapse of eight years | am now sa- © 
tisfied it is a good species, and may be recognised with facility 
by that peculiarity of form technically called habit ; it is not only 
of a smaller size than the preceding, but is distinctly shorter in 
proportion to the breadth and of a different form ; it also differs 
by having the head narrower ; the front with a very deep channel 
extending to the vertex, and nearly to the apex of the rostrum ; 
the eyes are smaller and less prominent ; the thorax has the lines 
and spots indistinct ; the elytra are distinctly shorter ; and the al- 
ternate interstices in recent specimens are more or less distinctly 
variegated. I possess specimens with the body and legs entirely 
flavescent or rufous, and others black with the tibiz and tarsi 
ferruginous, the effect of immaturity and of age. Mr. Water- 
house always considered this insect specifically distinct, and has 
received many specimens from Scotland, but not accompanied by 
one of Sit. puncticollis. 
Found abundantly throughout Great Britain in fields of grass 
and clover from May to October. 
8. Sitona humeralis (Karb. MSS.), Steph. 1831. 
— Pisi, Steph. 
— promptus, Schonh. 1834. 
I possess foreign specimens of this insect from Germar and 
Chevrolat, named Sitones promptus of Schonh. 
* Ent. Zeit. Stettin, no. 5. p. 99, 1842. 
t Ins. Spec. p. 416. no. 4. } Ent. Mag. v. p. 254, 1838, 
