J&rirrhistu*.'] RHYNCHOPHORA. 209 



indistiuct ; skies of ventral segments with whitish 



scales E. SClliPi, F. 



2. Elytra longer and less oval ; light spots on elytra 

 distinct: sides of ventral segments without ? 

 scale-like pubescence of elytra arranged, as a rule, in 



lines on the alternate interstices E. BlMACrLAxrs, F. 



ii. Elytra with very scanty scattered hair-like scales, with- 

 out white spots behind middle ; size smaller . . . . E. ACBIDTTLDS, L. 

 II. Thorax not closely punctured on disc, with the central line 

 very indistinct or absent ; surface deep black, glabrous and 

 very shining ; legs red E. 2ETHIOPS, 1'. 



E. scirpi, F. Black, dull, clothed moderately thickly with fine 

 fuscous grey scales, which, however, are much more dense in some 

 specimens than in others ; head small, punctured, rostrum rather longer 

 than the head and thorax, moderately curved, black, shining, carinated 

 above, distinctly striated and punctured ; antennae long and slender, 

 pitchy-red ; thorax nearly as long as broad, rounded at sides, convex, 

 thickly, coarsely and more or less confluently punctured, with a narrow 

 smooth central line ; scutellum thickly covered with ashy scales : elytra 

 oblong-ovate, much broader at base than thorax, with punctured stria 1 , 

 which are deeper towards suture, interstices convex, transversely rugu- 

 lose on disc, thickly granulate towards sides ; the surface is more or 

 less thickly clothed with scales, but the sculpture is always plainly 

 visible, and a little behind middle towards suture there is a more or 

 ]-> distinct small patch of whitish hairs or scales ; sides of mctasternurn 

 ami margins of the abdomen densely clothed with minute tufts of 

 whitish hairs or scales ; legs rather long, moderately stout, pitchy-red 

 or reddish-testaceous, thinly pubescent. L. 5-7| mm. 



Marshy places; on Scirpus ; often found hybernating in stems of Typha latifolia ; 

 very local ; first found by Mr. S. Stevt-ns at Hammersmith Marshes ; Xotting Hill 

 (formerly) ; Dulwich ; Gravesend ; Hastings district (common at Peppering and 

 (ine^tling) : Faygate; Portsmouth district; GLmvillt s Wootton; Rawdon Woods, 

 Bromsgrove ; Lancaster; Mr. Johnson records it from Armagh. 



E. bimaculatus, F. More elongate and parallel-sided than the 

 preceding species, to which it is closely allied, and with the elytra 

 longer and less oval ; it may also be known by the almost total absence 

 of striation on the rostrum, the much less pronounced striae on disc of 

 eh tra and the fact that the sides of the abdomen are not clothed with 

 scales ; the white spots on the elytra are more distinct, and the fuscous- 

 grey pubescence is, as a rule, arranged in lines on the alternate inter- 

 stices, especially in fresh specimens, which appear very often to be 

 distinctly lineated, whereas in E. scirpi the clothing of the elytra is more 

 or less confused; the punctuation also of the thorax is slightly coarser 

 than in the latter species ; size very variable. L. 5| 10 mm. 



Male with the abdomen longitudinally impressed at base and the 

 antenna; inserted further in front of middle of rostrarn, which is shorter 

 than in female. 



