CHAMPION—COLEOPTERA ; CURCULIONIDA ALT 
PH@NICOBATES*, n. gen. 
Rostrum nearly or quite as long as the prothorax, deflexed, dissimilar in the two 
sexes, slender, cylindrical, and comparatively smooth in $, rugose, stouter, and often 
gibbous above or angulate beneath (as seen in profile), and with the lower apical portion 
shovel-shaped in the more typical forms in , the scrobes obliquely descending to beneath 
the eyes; mandibles short, without scar, when closed just visible beyond the tip of the 
rostrum ; antenne in f usually inserted nearer the tip of the rostrum than in ?, slender, the 
scape abruptly clavate at the apex, the funiculus seven-jointed, joint 1 stout and obconic, 
the club acuminate-ovate, annulate, pubescent; eyes moderately large, separated by less than 
the width of the rostrum, inserted in the anterior portion of the head immediately behind 
the base of the rostrum, the post-ocular portion of the head globose and punctate ; 
prothorax long, more or less cucullate in front; scutellum minute or invisible; elytra 
oblong, covering the abdomen at the tip, regularly punctate-striate ; prosternum unim- 
pressed, arcuate-emarginate in front, the anterior cox inserted at about the middle, 
narrowly or moderately separated (distant in P. pandanicola); mesothoracic epimera 
small, not ascending; metasternum variable in length, the episterna narrow; ventral 
segments 1 and 2 long, connate, 3 and 4 short, the sutures 2—4 straight and deep; 
femora toothed or unarmed, the anterior pair only strongly toothed in some of the 
species; tibiee armed with a short hook at the middle of the apical margin; tarsi (fig. 20 }) 
with joint 1 small, triangular, 2 and 3 short, very broadly and equally dilated, 3 emarginate 
for the reception of the slender or oval fourth joint, 2 and 3 and the apex of 1 densely 
spongy-pubescent beneath, the claws minute, divergent, sometimes wanting; body elongate, 
subcylindrical, or oblong, sometimes fusiform in g, more or less squamose or setose, rarely 
subglabrous above; wings fully developed or wanting. 
Type, P. vittatus. 
Twenty-five species are referred to this genus, many of them varying greatly in size. 
The larger typical forms resemble a small Lexus, others have the general facies of a 
Mecinus or Smacronyx. Four are without wings, and one of these species and two others 
want the tarsal claws. Two of the large forms have the anterior femora only strongly 
dentate ; and one, which seems to be attached to Pandanus, has the anterior coxee widely 
separated. 
a. Tarsal claws present, the claw-joint extending beyond the third. 
1 
a. Anterior coxee narrowly or moderately separated. 
a. Wings fully developed. 
ae 
Anterior femora with a sharp tooth, the others unarmed: species large, 
elongate. 
Rostrum of ¢ flattened above, not dilated beneath; elytra usually 
4 
a. 
vittate ; anterior coxz narrowly separated ... sae vittatus. 
* The name Phenicobius has been used by Mérch in Mollusca (1852) and by Leconte in Anthribid 
Coleoptera (1876); but Phenicobates is sufficiently different to be used for a genus of palm-frequenting 
Curculionide. 
