^ [Jannary, 



admits that he is not satisfied with tliis conclusion, and in his catalogue 

 of the genus he gives the two as distinct. 



His stud}^ of the aedeagus is not, how^ever, adequate. I have been 

 engaged for more than a year in examining the male characters in 

 Uln/nclwplwra, and I find that the best specific characters are those 

 of the internal sac. Wagner does not allude to this part of the struc- 

 ture at all. Besides this, in Jj)ion the tegmen offers very important 

 characters, and no attempt to deal with these has been made, be3'ond 

 allusion to the length of the " Paramerenplatte " and some slight 

 remarks as to the " Paramerengabel." 



The study of the sac in Hhyncliopliora is of the first importance, as 

 I have remarked, but it is attended b}^ great difficulties which attain 

 their maximum in the genus w^e are discussing. The sac in Hhifnclw- 

 pliora is often very long, and when not evaginated projects anteriorly 

 much be^'ond the chitinous tube in which it is invaginated (the median 

 lobe of Sharp and Muir, the penis of man}^ waiters). In order to study 

 it, it must be evaginated, and this I have not succeeded as yet in doing 

 in any Apion ; the median lobe is usually long and slender in the genus 

 and the sac is entirely occluded within it. It must therefore be long 

 before we can understand this structure in Ajyion ; anyone who can give 

 an account of it in even a single species of the genus will be making an 

 important contribution to its study. 



The species of many genera of HhyncliopJiora are in a very unsatis- 

 factory state of discrimination, and this I am convinced is largeh^ due 

 to the want of satisfactory and thorough study of the genitalia.) 



I make these remarks because the work of so good and truthful an 

 entomologist as Herr Wagner is as it stands a serious discoumgement' to 

 a necessary and all-important study. The difficulties of carrying out 

 such w^ork in a thorough and conclusive manner are in the case of Apion 

 extremely great, but they must be overcome by skill and patience. At 

 present the investigation of the sex characters by even the best writers 

 on the subject is inadequate. We are all beginners. 



SchiLskv and others have proposed about 25 subgenera of the great 

 genus AjyioJi. Most of these are arbitrary and are enumerated but not 

 adopted in Wagners Catalogue. I find in examining the genitalia of 

 our Britisli species such important differences among them, as to leave 

 no doubt that several good genera exist. One of Schilsky's sub- 

 genera, ErytJn^apion^ is the subject of this paper, and it is one of the 

 groups that can, T believe, be accepted as a good genus. Schilsk}^ 

 established his subgenus on the colom-, which, although verv remarkable, 



