COLEOPTERA. 87 
tule, &c.—although small are not less attractive by their golden 
or silvery-green colour. In some the mandibles of the males 
are narrow, pointed, and project forwards. This charater is 
common to species foreign to Europe. The subgenus 
Leprrosomus, Schenh., 
Although formed of a single species—Curculio acuminatus, Fab. 
Oliv.—presents such isolated characters, that it may still be retained 
asa subgenus. ‘The head is elongated posteriorly and the snout is 
very short. The thorax is almost cylindrical. The elytra terminate 
in the mannef of diverging spines. The antenne are short. 
We now pass to another subgenus, that of 
LEPTOCERUS, 
Which differs from the first in the two anterior legs, which are lar- 
ger than the following one, with the thick thighs, arcuated tibie, and 
the tarsi frequently dilated and ciliated. The antennz are usually 
long and slender, The thorax is almost globular or triangular. The 
abdomen is hardly wider than the thorax. 
These Insects are most abundant in Brazil, and several analogous 
species are found in the Isle of France, or that of Bourbon. Others 
inhabit Africa *. 
A fourth subgenus, that of 
PHYLLOBIUS, 
Will include other Brevirostres of the same division, also furnished 
with wings, but in which the lateral sulci of the proboscis are straight, 
short, and even consist of a simple fossula. ‘To this we unite various 
genera of M. Schcenherr—his Phyllobius, Macrorynus, echt alias 
Cyphicerus, Amblirhinus and Phytoscapus. 
Those Brevirostres, in which the penultimate joint of the tarsi 
is bilobate, but that are apterous and almost always destitute 
of a scutellum, will form other subgenera, viz., OrHiorHYNCHUS 
and Omias, in which the antennal sulci are straight; and Pacuyr- 
HYNCHUs, Psauipium, ‘I'HyLAcirEs, and SyzyGors, in which those 
sulci are curved. The Othiorhynci are distinguished from Omias 
by the auricular dilitation of the lateral and inferior Jay of 
the proboscis, which gives the insertion to the antenne; the Syzy- 
gops, or Cyclops of Dejean, by their eyes, almost united ‘superiorly ; 
the Psalidia by their salient and arcuated or crescent-shaped mandi- 
bles. The Thylacites are removed from the Pachyrhynci by their at- 
* The genera Prostomus, Leptocerus, Cratopus, Lepropus, Hadromerus, Hybsonotus, 
of Schcenherr. The Hybsonotes have the body proportionally narrower, and more 
elongated ; the proboscis almost as long as the head and thorax; the antennal 
sulci almost straight, but oblique, and the thorax lobate anteriorly. The Leptoceri 
are distinguished from all the others, by the length of the first joint of the antenne, 
the end of which when thrown back extends beyond the head; in the other genera 
it extends to but little, if at all beyond the eyes. The Cratopi are peculiar to the 
Isles of France, Bourbon, and some other islands of the Indian Ocean. Their thorax 
is trapezoidal, and their abdomen in the form of a reversed triangle. The genus 
Prostomus has, perhaps, been established on males only, their mandibles being some- 
times larger than those of the females. 
