232 Mr. J. Walton on the genus Sitona. 
Common in woods, on the oak, birch and hazel, particularly 
in the chalky districts of Kent and Surrey, from June to Sep- 
tember. 
9. Sitona Meliloti, Walton. 
Elongate, black ; clothed more or less densely with coppery and 
fuscous, or cinereous and silvery-gray scales. Head narrow, very 
little broader than the rostrum, closely punctulated; the front 
flat, with a deeply impressed longitudinal line, commencing on 
the vertex and extending nearly to the apex of the rostrum : eyes 
rather smaller and a little less prominent than the other species 
of this section except the last: rostrum rather shorter than the 
head. Antenne testaceous, sometimes the funiculus pitchy, with 
the clava fuscous. Thorax as broad as long; moderately dilated 
and rounded at the sides ; the base rather broader than the apex ; 
convex above, very closely and minutely punctured ; more or less 
densely clothed at the sides with scales ; the disc sparimgly so, 
obsoletely trilineated or partially abraded. LElytra elongate ; the 
shoulders subrectangular and rounded ; the sides nearly straight ; 
the apex obtusely rounded, rather deeply punctate-striate, more 
or less thickly clothed with scales; distinctly maculated on the 
shoulders and scutellum ; the interstices indistinctly variegated 
with fuscous and cinereous scales’: specimens sometimes occur 
very thinly clothed with silvery-gray scales, concolorous or par- 
tially denuded. Body densely clothed with scales beneath. Legs 
black, with the base and apex of the femora, the tibize and tarsi 
testaceous. Length 2—2+ lines. 
Found in company with Sit. lineata and on the same plant, 
and has been mistaken for that insect; but Sit. lineata has the 
head much broader, the eyes more prominent, and the sculpture 
different. Itis the most nearly allied to S. humeralis, the head, 
eyes and thorax being very similar, but S. humeralis differs in 
having the front of the head, and the rostrum above, deeply ex- 
cavated ; the thorax with large scattered punctures, and the inter- 
stices minutely punctured ; the elytra shorter, being long-ovate. 
This is, according to Schénherr, a new and undescribed spe- 
cies; and according to Germar, “ closely allied to Sit. geniculatus 
of Schénh., but having only a defective specimen of the true 
Sit. geniculatus I cannot decide ; the thorax seems a little less 
rounded.” 
I found this species in Yorkshire on the melilot trefoil (T’rifo- 
lium officinale) in June ; subsequently it has been taken from the 
same plant in Charlton sand-pits by Mr. 8. Stevens and by myself, 
in June and July. 
