MR. F. P. PASCOE ON THE CUHCULIONIBjE. 450 



Alcides Saundersii. (PI. XIX. fig. 4.) A. parallelus, motlicc 

 crassus, niger, squamositate densa ochracca tectus ; rostro sat elon- 

 gftto, liaud carinato, basi rude punctato; prothorace subcylindvico, 

 regulariter granulato, interstitiis squamositate deiisa repletis, supra 

 crista silacea floccosa munito, lobo mediano rotundato ; elytris sub- 

 cylindricis, baud elongatis, protborace vix latioribus, punctato-striatis, 

 punctis oblongis, approximatis, interstitiis angustis, singulatim crista 

 erecta silacea in medio sita ; infra pedibusque nigris ; antennis nigris, 

 articulo basali funiculi breviusculo, cseteris brevioribus, longitudine 

 sequalibus. Long. 5 lin. 

 Hab. Siam. 



All isolated species in tliis polymorphous but very natural 

 group. As in many of its congeners, the scutellum is detached 

 or separated from the protliorax and surrounded by the elytra, 

 and there is a cavity where, normally, the scutellum should be,, 

 caused by the median lobe of the prothorax being rounded in- 

 stead of being triangularly produced. The crests on the pro- 

 thorax and elyti'a seem to be of the same substance as the squa- 

 mosity covering the rest of the surface, which is analogous to that 

 found in such profusion on Paipelosoinus dealbntus, Boisd., and 

 other Curculionidd *. I have dedicated it to Mr. Wilson Saunders, 

 to whom I am indebted for my specimen. 



* M. Jekel (.Tourn. of Entom. i. p. 12 et seq.) lias given an account of the 

 " pollinosity " of the genera Li.vtcs and Larinus, in which he distinguishes be- 

 tween a " ground.layer " growing according to the "general law " and a " real 

 poUinose exudation," both being susceptible of renewal in the living insect. 

 A curious Tenebrionid {Saragus Jloccosus) recently described by me in the 

 'Annals and Magazine' (1870, p 100) is densely covered, in the living state, 

 with a white flocculent substance, which our highest authority (Mr. Currey) 

 pronounces to be an undoubted fungus of the genus harm ; and it is remark- 

 able that this Saragus is found, as Mr. Masters, of the Sydney Museum, who 

 sent it me, says, on trees covered with a white " lichen " resembling the sub- 

 stance on the insects. A somewhat analogous case is related by Drs. Aube 

 and Grenier (Ann. Soc. Ent. de France, 18G2, p. 73), who found, near Beziers, 

 on Mercurialis tomentosa, whicli is covered with a thick white down, Apion 

 germari entirely covered with little white scales, and without the least trace of 

 the band which distinguishes those found on Mercurialis annua. I have since 

 submitted a specimen of the Saragus to Mr. Oarruthers, of the British Museum, 

 who, while declining to give an opinion, states that he can see nothing in the 

 squamosity but a grumous mass without any trace of a mycological character. I 

 find that it is insoluble in alcohol, and is not therefore of a waxy nature, as 

 has elsewliere been suggested. It seems confined to the surface, and appears 

 to me to resemble the flocculent prolongations of the species described above, 

 and more especially of the Paixielosomus, which, Mr. Wallace informs me, are, 

 in the living insect, very much lai-ger than in any specimens we see in our 

 LlJfN. PEOC. — ZOOLOGY, VOL. X. 31 



