18 E. W. Ferguson. 



1 and 2 of my revision, and, according to Dr. Sharp, probably 

 most of the other species as far as group 6. 



Aphalidura. Genotype — A. impressa, Boisd. Inckided with 

 this are P. sloanei, Ferg., and P. breviformis, Ferg.. 

 P. sloanci, Ferg., is certainly congeneric with P. nn- 

 prcssa, Boisd., and if the genus Aphalidura is to be recognised 

 all the members of group 7 should be included. I am much 

 more doubtful about the species of group 9, of which P. 

 breviformis, Ferg., is a member, and there seem equally good 

 reasons for separating all the groups generically as for splitting 

 off groups 7 and 9. For the present, therefore, and until much 

 more work is done on the male genitalia and abdominal seg- 

 ments of the various groups, I think it would be better to restrict 

 the new genus to group 7. For this reason, in describing a 

 new species of group 9 in the present paper, I have thought it 

 better to place it under the old genus Plialidura. 



A further difficulty arises in connection with the name of the 

 genus. Phalidiira impressa, Boisd., the type of Aphalidura, is 

 almost certainly the original Curculio mirabilis, Kirby, or as 

 Sharp says, possibly a close ally of it. The key to the solution 

 lies in the interpretation of the figure of the male sexual 

 mechanism given by Kirby. As Dr. Sharp points out, the 

 figure is not satisfactory for P. impressa, though the discrepan- 

 cies may be partially, if not wholly, due to foreshortening. I 

 believe that this is probably the case as in all the allied species 

 known to me the apices of the laminae are broadly rounded, 

 and not obtusely pointed as in P. impressa, and in the figure of 

 C. mirabilis. 



I have to thank Mr. Sloane for drawing my attention to the 

 fact that Erickson, as early as 1842 (Archiv. fur Natur., p. 113) 

 identified P. mirabilis, Kirby, with the only known Tasmanian 

 species, and in a footnote gives A. mirabundus, Gyll., as a 

 synonym, while drawing attention to ( ?)Schonherr's misidenti- 

 fication of P. mirabilis. A. mirabundus, Gyll. (1834) antedates 

 A. impressus, Boisd. (1835), the type of which was also from 

 Tasmania. 



If Curculio mirabilis, Kirby, is to be thus identified with 

 Amycterus impressus, Boisd., the further question arises as to 

 whether the name Amycterus should not be used in preference 

 to Aphalidura for this group. Amycterus was described in 

 Schonherr's Curculionidum Dispositio Methodica, IS26, p. 202, 

 the type of the genus being given as follows : — 



