296 Mr. J. Walton on the genera Pissodes, Hypera, ^c. 



anteriorly, dilated and rounded at the sides posteriorly, convex 

 above, closely rugose-punctate, a slender abbreviated carinula 

 on the middle of the back, and two remote foveolse on the disc. 

 Elytra elongate, punctate-striate, the punctures deep, oblong, 

 remote, very unequal, small towards the base and apex, and much 

 larger in the middle ; the interstices closely rugulose, alternately 

 broader and elevated ; sprinkled with obscure lutescent scales, 

 and with a broad unequal abbreviated fascia behind the middle 

 composed of flavescent scales. Legs elongate, pale mfo-piceous, 

 femora and tibiae annulated with whitish scales in the middle. 

 Length 4 lines. 



There is one specimen of this insect, reputed to be British, in 

 the collection of the National Museum. 



Genus Hypera, Germ. (1821), Curt., Steph., Westw. 

 Phytonomus, Schonh. (1826)*, Spry et Shuck. 

 Great confusion has hitherto prevailed in this country as to the 

 specific identity of the insects of this genus : although our cata- 

 logues contain from twenty-nine to thirty-one specific names, of 

 which seven have been sunk into varieties and twenty- two de- 

 scribed as specifically distinct by Mr. Stephens in his ' Manual 

 of British Coleoptera,' yet, after a most rigorous comparative ex- 

 amination of numerous specimens, I have not been able to iden- 

 tify more than fourteen distinct species ; I have therefore ven- 

 tured to go further, by reducing eight more names into syno- 

 nyms or varieties. It appears to me that British entomologists 

 have relied too much on- the colour and markings of the scales, 

 and on the colour of the difierent organs of the body, as specific 

 distinctions, but these characters in a majority of the species are 

 extremely variable and consequently unsafe to depend upon. I 

 have corrected the names of a few insects by means of well-au- 

 thenticated foreign specimens, and in accordance with the autho- 

 rities so often named in my former notes, which will I hope have 

 a tendency to establish the nomenclature upon a uniform and 

 permanent foundation. 



1. Hypera punctata, Fab., et auct. alior. 



Cure, medius et austriacus, Marsh., Kirb. MSS. 



2. H. fasciculata, Herbst, et auct. alior. 

 — sticticus, Kirb. MSS. 



Very rare and local : it has not occurred of late years to my 



* I cannot find any reason assigned by Schonherr for changing the name 

 Hypera; I have therefore, in accordance with the just law of priority, followed 

 those British authors who have retained it ; yet it is rather remarkable that 

 Germar hiniself, with many other continental entomologists, have adopted 

 Phytonomus. Latreille employed a similar name (llyperia) for a genus of 

 Crustacea, which occurs for the first time in * Cuv. Rear. Anim.* iv. 1829. 



