318 ME. rBANCIS p. PASCOE ON 



On new African Genera and Species of Curculionidse. 

 By Francis P. Pascoe, F.L.S. 



[Eead 15th April, 1886.] 



(Plate XLI.) 



The localities from which the greater part of the species here de- 

 scribed are derived are, I believe, new to scientists. They are : — 

 Momboia*, a missionary station north of Lake Nyassa ; Landanaf, 

 a new settlement on the Congo ; and Mayotte, one of tbe Comoro 

 Islands (off Madagascar). It may be that some of these have been 

 already described; but entomologicalliterature is now so extensive 

 that it is difficult to be quite sure, particularly as so many ento- 

 mologists are satisfied with giving a bare and sometimes inadequate 

 description {pour prendre date, as the French say) without any 

 reference to affinities or to diagnostic characters, often of more 

 importance than the descriptions themselves. 



I may observe that there is probably no family of insects in 

 which greater diversity of appearance in the same genus is to be 

 found than among tbe Curculionidse. Species the most dissimilar 

 are not to be separated by any characters which are usually deemed 

 to be of generic importance ; and in extreme cases we have to fall 

 back on secondary characters which, after all, may be quite as 

 natural. On the other hand, species which are very much alike 

 in appearance are found to belong to widely different groups, 

 while the absence in many cases of any correlation between the 

 characters makes the classification difficult, and necessitates an 

 undesirable but unavoidable number of genera if anything like 

 defiuiteness is to be maintained. 



The following is a list of the species and the subfamilies to 

 which they belong : — 



Beachyderin^. 

 Piazomias peregrinus. 

 macer. 



Siderodactylus Oberthui-ii. 



delectans. 



puellaris. 



* I owe these species to the kindness of Mr. Simpson, of the Geographical 

 Society. 



t To M. Eene Oberthiir, of Eennes, I am indebted for these and a number 

 of other interesting forms obtained by his collectors in other parts of the 

 world. 



