Mr. T. V. Wollaston on the Goleoptera of St. Helena. 401 



XLIX. — On the Goleoptera of St. Helena. 

 By T. Veenon Wollaston, M.A., F.L.S. 



[Continued from p. 321.] 

 Fam. 18. CurculionidaB. 



(Subfam. COSSONIDES.) 



Genus 27. Stenoscelis. 



Wollaston, Journ. of Ent. i. 141 (1861). 



34. Stenoscelis hylastoides. 



S. subcylindrica, nigra vel nigro-picea, fere calva, subnitida ; capite 

 prothoraceque sat profunde et confertissime punctatis, illo con- 

 vexo aequali, hoc subaequali postice recte truncate immarginato, 

 pone medium ad latera subrecto sed ibidem jDaulo sinuato ; elytris 

 piceis, striato-punctatis ac rugose seriatim asperatis, asperitate 

 antice plicaturas transversas sed postice tubercula parva acuta 

 efformante, interstitiis minutissime punctulatis ; antennis pedibus- 

 que piceis, illarum capitulo horumque tarsis pallidioribus. 



Long. corp. lin. l|-2. 



Stenoscelis hylastoides, Well., he. cit. 142, pi. 11. f. 1 (1861). 



The examples which I originally described of this curious 

 insect, and for the reception of which I found it necessary to 

 establish a new genus, were taken by the late Mr. Bewicke, 

 in 1860, at the Cape of Good Hope ; and it is an interesting 

 fact, therefore, geographically, that (judging from an exten- 

 sive series which was captured by Mr. Melliss) the species 

 would appear to be common also at St. Helena, After giving, 

 in the ' Journal of Entomology,' a lengthened diagnosis of the 

 group, I added : — " So very closely does the present insect, at 

 first sight, assimilate Hylastes, that I had regarded it, previous 

 to a critical examination, as an abnormal member of that 

 group, in which the external edge of the tibi^ was edentate. 

 But, on closer inquiry, it proves to be undoubtedly one of the 

 Gurculionidce^ the entire structure of its slender, toothless, 

 aincally \incinate tibiae, and its unreceived tarsi, assigning it 

 to that family. From Rhyncolus^ however, to which it is 

 clearly related, it recedes completely in its excessively short, 

 broad, thick, and subtriangular rostrum, in its very abbre- 

 viated and differently constructed antenure (which have appa- 

 rently no lateral scrohs for the reception of their scape) , in its 

 minute, punctiform scutellum, its more globose, exposed head, 

 and in its longer feet ; and I should consider that the Madeiran 

 Hexarthrum is perhaps its nearest described ally, — though in 

 that genus the funiculus is only 6-articulate, whereas in Ste- 

 noscelis it is 7-." 



Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 4. Vol iv. 29 



