

Smicrojir/ckina.] RHYICCHOPHORA. 281 



having tlie eyes almost meeting beneath th* rostrum which is sh-udt-r, 

 or comparatively sleuder, and much narrower than head ; the til.i;e, 

 moreover, are armed with a small tooth at apex, and the tenth stria 

 of the elytra is not continued behind the posterior coxae. 



SMICRONYX, Schfmherr. 



This genus contains about twenty-five species, which are chiefly 

 found in Europe ; others occur in Northern Asia and probably in North 

 America ; representatives have also been described from Madeira and 

 the Canaries, South Africa, the Caucasus district, Cuba, &c. ; they are 

 among the smallest of the Rhynchophora and may be very easily 

 passed over, so that in all probability the number of species will be 

 found to be much greater than is at present known ; they fall, as Bedel 

 observes, into two divisions, which will probably have to be separated 

 as distinct genera : in one of these the strise of the elytra are obsolete 

 and replaced by almost imperceptible lines of points, and in the other 

 the elytra are plainly striated and more or less thickly clothed with 

 scales which are exceedingly easily abraded ; four species have usually 

 been regarded as British, but I do not feel at all sure as to their right 

 determination or their synonymy ; they are extremely rare insects, so 

 that it is hard to obtain the material on which to work the genus ; 

 through the kindness, however, of Mr. S. Stevens, Mr. Champion and 

 others, I have been enabled to examine some fifty specimens ; M. Bedel 

 has also kindly examined several of these for me, and among them he 

 has found two specimens of S. ccecut, Reich, (nu*cut<e, Bris.), which 

 must therefore be added to the British list ; at first, after a careful 

 examination with a compound microscope, I came to the conclusion that 

 the specimens standing in our collection as S. cicur and S. pygmcrus 

 were identical ; however, after an examination of the specimens named 

 by M. Bedel, I have modified my first impressions and am of opinion 

 that, according to continental ideas, the specimens that we have hitherto 

 regarded as S. jungermannire should be relerred to S. Beicliei, that S. 

 jungennannicB and S. cicur are synonymous, and that the specimens 

 standing under 6'. pyrjmctut in our collections should be referred partly 

 to S. Reicliei and partly to S. jungermannin' ; in fact, I am not sure 

 whether Curtis' original specimen of S. pygmams is not identical with 

 S. cceciis, in which case the latter name must be sunk ; the genus is 

 certainly a very puzzling one and the characters of the species ill- 

 detined ; the punctuation of the thorax, for instance, is by some authors 

 regarded as a valuable character, but it appears to differ considerably in 

 different specimens of the same species ; when quite fresh the insects 

 are covered with large elongate-ovate whitish and brownish scales, which 

 are arranged thickly on the thorax and in double rows on the inter- 

 stices of the elytra ; they are very pretty objects under the microscope 

 and in some lights are plainly iridescent ; owing to their size and the 



