322 RHYNCHOPHORA. [Nancqiliyes. 



NANOPHYES, Schonherr (SpJuerula, Steph.). 



This genus contains upwards of fifty species which are rather widely 

 distributed throughout the greater part of the Old World ; only one has 

 been described from America, and. this is somewhat doubtful ; twenty- 

 nine occur in Europe, of which two are found in Britain ; they are very 

 small, convex, rather prettily variegated insects with long rostrum and 

 antennae, the latter terminating in a somewhat loose and elongate club; the 

 thorax is conical and is scarcely narrower at base than the base of elytra ; 

 the scutellum is inconspicuous ; the prosternum is very short before the 

 anterior coxae, and the legs are long and slender, with the femora either 

 simple or finely denticulate ; one of the chief characters, however, lies 

 in the very large trochanters, which, as before stated, cause the genus 

 to be in some measure transitionary towards Apion, although its affini- 

 ties to Cionus are too great to allow of its being removed from its 

 present position ; Gervais, who has described the habits of the larva of 

 N, tamaricis, remarks that the larva, which lives in the ovary of the 

 tamarisk, is able to impart to it a jumping motion ; in this it appears 

 to resemble the larva of the small exotic moth Carpocapsa saltitam. 



I. Femora simple N. LTTHEI, F. 



II. Femora armed on their under surface with one or two dis- 

 tinct sharp spines N. GRACILIS, Redt. 



N. lythri, F. (marmoratus, Goeze). Convex, slightly obovate, 

 rather shining, black, clothed with fine greyish pubescence ; elytra with 

 an abbreviated fascia and a posterior spot testaceous and covered with 

 whitish hairs ; these, however, are somewhat variable ; rostrum long 

 and moderately stout, slightly curved, plainly striated, antennae red 

 with club dark ; thorax black, sometimes reddish on disc or almost 

 entirely reddish, scarcely- broader at base than its length, very finely 

 punctured ; elytra with deep striae, interstices somewhat convex ; legs 

 entirely testaceous, or with the femora more or less black, the latter 

 simple. L. lf-2 mm. 



Damp places ; on LytTirum Salicaria (Purple Loosestrife) ; somewhat local but 

 usually common where it occurs and sometimes found in profusion ; Wimbledon, 

 Woking, Lee; Norfolk; Monks Wood, and Wicken Fen, Cambridge; Dover; 

 Hastings district ; Arundel ; Portsmouth district ; New Forest ; Glanvilles 

 Wootton ; Devon ; Bath ; Bristol ; Swansea ; Bewdley ; llepton ; Borth, Central 

 Wales; Liverpool and Manchester district; Northumberland and Durham district, 

 Heaton Burn, Spindlestoue Pond and Hetton Hall, near Belford. Scotland, very 

 rare, " Argyllshire, Rev. Geo. Little, Murray's Cat." Ireland, near Waterford, 

 Furnish Island, Co. Galway, Coney Island, Lough Neagh, &c. 



N. gracilis, Redt. (geniculatus, Aube). Very closely allied to the 

 preceding, from which it differs in having all its femora furnished with 

 two small sharp spines on the underside, between the middle and the 

 apex, of which the one nearer the apex is much the smallest ; it may 

 also be distinguished by its longer and thinner legs, antennae, and 



