404 Mr. T. V. Wollaston on the Coleoptera of St. Helena. 



sat profunde, dense, et argute punctato ; elytris profunde striato- 

 punctatis, interstitiis irregulariter uiseriatim punctatis ; anteiinis 

 pedibusque elongatis, gracilibus, illis rufo-piceis, funiculi art" 2''° 

 longissimo, his obscurioribus, femoribus asperatis, tarsis elongatis 

 art° 3^'° late bilobo. 



Long. Corp. lin. 3|-4|. 



Mas rostro pauliilum breviore et erassiore, ad antennarum inser- 

 tionem subquadrate ampliato. 



Fcem. rostro longissimo, gracillimo, tereti, ac paulo levius punctato. 



Var. /3. obscurus. — Omnino piceus, subminor (?), ac fere calvus. 



The comparativelj gigantic size and elongated rostrum and 

 limbs of this fine Microxylohius would of themselves suffice to 

 distinguish it from every other member of the group which 

 has hitherto been brought to light ; and although equally- 

 brassy with several of the other species, its general aspect is 

 somewhat more in accordance with the subfamily Cosso- 

 nides than is the case with its numerous (and more or less 

 eccentric) allies. The construction of its rostrum, indeed 

 (which, although in both sexes elongated and narrow, is par- 

 ticularly so in the females, whilst in the males it is con- 

 siderably dilated at the insertion of the antennse), is tolerably 

 suggestive both of Mesites and Cossonus ; and its tendency to 

 be minutely pubescent (at any rate on the elytra) is another 

 feature which deserves to be especially noticed. Three ex- 

 amples of it are amongst the insects which have been con- 

 signed to me by Mr. Melliss, two of which are a typical male 

 and female, whilst the third is of a dark-piceous hue and less 

 evidently pubescent. This latter individual, however (the 

 " var. /3. obscurus ^^ of my diagnosis), I cannot believe to be 

 any thing more tlran a variety of the other form — a conclusion 

 which is all the more probable, since it is the manifest ten- 

 dency of many of the species to have both a metallic and a 

 darker state*. 



(Subfam. Synaptonychides.) 



Genus Nesiotes. 



Wollaston, Journ. of Ent. i. 211 (1861). 



Nesiotes Jiorridus, n. sp. 



H. elongato-ovatus, niger, subnitidus, squamis magnis fulvo-cinereis 



setisque suberectis grossis plus minus vestitus ; prothorace ante 



* Until the recent collection of Mr. Melliss had been placed in my 

 hands, I had barely remarked this tendency to a twofold coloration in 

 the M. Chevrolatii (i. e. the armatus, Boh.), which had been looked upon 

 by me as an emphatically brassy species. Several examples of it, how- 

 ever, which are now before me are very nearly as black as the M. luci- 

 fngus and lacerfosus and the dark variety of the debilu. 



