A Bevision of the Genus Synthocus. 115 



Cape Colony [Brit. Mus. and Stockh. Mus.]. 



Type in the British Museum. 



The projecting basal tubercles on the elytra will at ouce dis- 

 tinguish this insect from all the other small black species. It may 

 be noted that the colour of the elytra is often red-brown, but this is 

 only visible when the dense black scaling is removed. The develop- 

 ment of the elytral carinse shows every gradation between the 

 extreme forms. 



10. Brotheus pe^moesus, Thb. 



Brachycerus yrcemorsus, Thb., Nov. Act. Ups., vi., p. 33 (1799). 



Curculio porcatus, Marsham, Ent. Brit., p. 255 (1802). 



Brotheus porcatus, Steph., 111. Brit., iv., p. 154 (1831). 



Byrsops deprimatus, Boh., Schh. Gen. Cure, vi., 2, p. 407 (1842). 



Long. 4-7 J ; lat. 2|-5 mm. 



Colour black, the thorax, legs and external caringe of the elytra 

 with dense yellowish scaling ; elytra with a common subtriangular 

 velvet-black patch behind middle. 



Head with large scattered punctures and a short central stria. 

 Prothorax about as long as broad, subcylindrical, only slightly 

 narrowed in front ; upper surface rugosely scrobiculate, with a 

 shallow furrow on each side, enclosing a roughly diamond-shaped 

 area, the margins of which are slightly elevated; sides smooth, with 

 remote deep punctures. Elytra subquadrate, the basal margin 

 deeply sinuate and with four small horizontal tubercles projecting 

 over the base of the prothorax, shoulders sloping rather obliquely 

 and produced laterally into a sharp angle, the sides gradually 

 narrowed posteriorly as far as the declivity, which is very abrupt ; 

 upper surface with fairly regular rows of shallow punctures, the disk 

 shallowly depressed, the depression being bounded by an oblique 

 basal carina on interval 3, almost uniting with a curved carina on 

 interval 4, which ends abruptly in a sharp tubercle at the top of the 

 declivity ; interval 2 with only a single conical tubercle at the top of 

 the declivity, 5 with a basal carina forming the humeral slope, and 

 6 with a sharp crenelated carina terminating abruptly at the top 

 of the declivity ; inflexed margins with regular rows of deep 

 punctures. Legs with dense yellowish scaling variegated with black 

 and with sparse dark setae ; tibiae not produced externally at apex ; 

 tarsi broad. 



" Cape " [Brit., Oxf. and Stockh. Muss.]. 



Type in the Upsala University Museum ; type of porcatus in the 

 British Museum (coll. Stephens), of deprimatus in the Stockholm 

 Museum. 



