CURCULIONID^. 297 



ones have hitherto been cited, the characters which separate the 

 latter from the former seem to be scarcely more than imaginary. 

 That there are slight differences between certain individuals of a 

 species which varies so marvellously in stature is evident ; but I 

 have not yet been able to discover any which I can look upon as 

 unquestionably of specific signification ; for it is but natural that 

 the larger specimens should have their general characters a little 

 more developed. The only Atlantic example however (a Madeiran 

 one) which is now before me has its prothorax a trifle shorter, and 

 more rounded at the sides, than an English picipes with which I 

 have compared it, and the central keel is quite obsolete if we ex- 

 cept the merest fragment of a line (which may be supposed to indi- 

 cate it) on the fore disk and its scape is just perceptibly more 

 robust (and curved) at the base ; but I doubt if these little dis- 

 crepancies would be constant, and, even supposing this to be the case, 

 whether they are specific ones. As it is barely possible however 

 that further material may render it desirable to treat this Atlantic 

 Procas as separate from the picipes (and Steveni), I will just record 

 it as the " var. {3. brevicollis" though as already stated I do not 

 imagine that features so minute and unimportant in a species which 

 doubles itself in stature can be indicative of more than a slight geo- 

 graphical, or perhaps an insular, variety. 



If, therefore, my premises be correct, I may add that the P. picipes 

 is very sparingly though widely distributed over these Atlantic 

 Groups two specimens only having as yet been taken in the 

 Madeiras, and two in the Canaries. Of the former, one was found 

 under a stone (at a rather high elevation) near the Great Curral by 

 the late Mr. F. A. Anderson, and the other by Mr. Bewicke (drowned 

 in a tank, in his garden, above Funchal) ; whilst of the latter, the 

 first was captured by myself at Oliva in Puerteventura, and the 

 second by the Kev. R. T. Lowe at a tolerable altitude in the Bar- 

 ranco de Nogales of Palma *. 



* Considering the almost unparalleled instability as regards size which 

 obtains in Procas, and the corresponding slight alteration in some of the super- 

 ficial characters, I doubt whether in reality more than a single species has 

 hitherto been described. That the picipes and Steveni are conspecific I have 

 already recorded my suspicion ; and I think it very questionable whether the 

 granulicollis of Walton is distinct from the latter. Indeed Walton himself re- 

 garded it originally as a mere variety of the picipes, and afterwards thought that 

 it might be identical with the Steveni ; and of the three characters on which he 

 founded it, two are literally worthless. Thus, he says it maybe known "by 

 having the head foveolated [in an example of ihegranulicollisnow before me this 

 is scarcely distinguishable, and it is absolutely ignored by Boheman in his 

 diagnosis], the rostrum slightly incrassated at the apex [this is confessedly & generic 



