300 TNSBCTA. 



uneven. These Insects are peculiar to the south of Europe and to 

 Africa, live on the grouin! and appear very early in the sprinsj^. The 

 women of Ethiopia use one species as a sort of amulet; they pass a 

 string through its body and hang it round their tieck(l) — " Voyage 

 de M. Calliaud au fleuve Blanc." 



CURCULIO... 



Where almost the whole under part of the tarsi is furnished with 

 short and stiff hairs, forming pellets, "and their penultimate joint is 

 deeply biIoi)ate. Their antennae are composed of eleven joints, or 

 even of twelve if we count the false one, which sometimes terminates 

 them, the last of which form the club. 



As this genus, although much more restricted than in the Linnean 

 system, still comprises numerous species discovered since the time 

 of that naturalist, various savans, Germar and Schanherr in parti- 

 cular, have divided it into many others. It may be separated, from 

 our own observations, into two principal divisions. 



I. Those in which the mentum, more or less widened superiorly, 

 and more or less orbicular, occupies all the. width of the buccal 

 cavity, and entirely or very nearly conceals the maxillae, and where 

 the mandibles are not very sensiljly dini airrl, or merely present a 

 slight sinus under the joiut. 



We may form a first subgenus, 



Cyclomus, 



Of those lirevirostres in which, as in the preceding ones, the tarsi 

 are destitute of a brush, and the penultimate joint is entire or 

 slightly emarginated, and without very distinct lobes. To it should 

 be referred the Cryptops, Deracanthus, Amycterus, and Cyclomus of 

 Schoenherr(2). . 



The tarsi of all the others are furnished with a brush, and the 

 penultimate joint is deeply bilobule. 



Some are provided with wings. 



Here the lateral sulci of the proboscis arc oblique and directed 

 inferiorly. The anterior legs differ but little in their proportions 

 from the following ones. They form a first subgenus, that of 



(1) Oliv., Col, 82. M. SchcEnherT forms tlie genus Episus \v\\h \\\e. species 

 called the rostrutus. The tliorax is elongated and ahnost linear. 



(2) These genera seem to connect themselves with tlie Myrniops and Rhytir- 

 hinus of this author, and in tliat case the Brachyceri should be placed further 

 back. See our article Rhynchophores in tlic Diet. Class. d'Hist. Nat. 



