Amalus.] RHYHOHOPHOIIA. 369 



A. haemorrhous, Herbst (scortiUum, Herbst.). Short convex, 

 pitchy black, upper side subglabrous, slightly shining, underside 

 thickly clothed with white scales ; upper surface of thorax and elytra 

 strewn with very small greyish scales which are thick at base of 

 suture and form a spot ; base of antennte and legs red ; rostrum long ; 

 thorax long, scarcely transverse, gradually constricted before apex, 

 closely punctured, with the sides rounded and without lateral tubercles 

 or central furrow ; elytra subglobose, broadly reddish at apex, with 

 strong punctured striae and narrow convex interstices, which are not 

 murieate at apex ; legs moderately long. L. 1^ mm. 



Male with the intermediate tibiae armed with a small hook. 



By sweeping herbage ; often found in moss and haystack refuse ; local ; London 

 district, Kent and Surrey, and South East Coast, generally distributed; Ipswich; 

 Lowestoft ; Asbwicken, Norfolk ; Amberley, Arnndel ; Brighton ; Shirley Warren, 

 Southampton ; Sonthsea ; Bewdley ; Salford Priors ; Kidderminster ; Cleethorpes, 

 Lincolnshire ; Mabberley, Cheshire ; Northumberland district, rare, Wellington ; 

 Scotland, rare, Sol way and Forth district; Ireland, rare, Dublin and Armagh. 



BHXNONCUS, Stephens. 



About a dozen species are known as belonging to this genus, which 

 appear to be somewhat widely distributed as single specimens have been 

 recorded from India and the Cape of Good Hope ; they are short, thick- 

 set insects with the rostrum stout, the eyes large and round and strongly 

 prominent, the thorax not strongly constricted before apex, the femora 

 simple, the prosternum not excised at apex, and the anterior coxae distant ; 

 the tarsal claws are appendiculate on their innerside; the species are chiefly 

 found on Rumex ; the larvae live on the stems of the plants and devour 

 the centre and fleshy portions ; as a rule they appear to form a cocoon in 

 which they undergo their final transformations; as observed above, some 

 of the species have the power of leaping sideways, notably R. perpen- 

 dicidaru (subfasciatus) ; this power is not strongly developed, and, as far 

 as my own observation has gone, the insect does not appear to make much 

 use of it; it appears to be a protective property in course of develop- 

 ment and is rather strange as being opposed diametrically to the usual 

 protective habit of the Ceuthorrhynchina which is to shut the legs and 

 rostrum beneath the body and remain quite motionless. 



All the European species, with the exception of R. albocinctus, Gyll., 

 are found in Britain; they may be separated as follows: 



I. Anterior margin of thorax without tubercles in 



middle, 

 i. Interstices of elytra rugose bat without distinct 



tubercles or asperities. 

 1. Form short and broad; size larger; elytra not, 



or only slightly, longer than together broad. 

 A. Sides of thorax without a distinct tubercle ; 

 stria; of elytra nearly as broad as the inter* 



stices R. PKRTCARPICS, L. 



VOL. V. B b 



