CLASSIFICATION OF THE RHYNCHOPHOROUS COLEOPTERA. 393 
Prosternum not excavated; . . .. < AMYCTERIDZ. 
Prosternum excavated: . . +. e + « YRSOPID 
Gular margin not prominent, mentum large, concealing the 
mandibles, which are not scarred at tip BRACHYCERID Z. 
b. Tarsi dilated, usually with a brush of hair beneath: 
Mandibles with deciduous tip, leavinga scar OTIORHYNCHID#. 
Mandibles simple, usually pincer-shaped. . CURCULIONID. 
B. Antenne with 11 separate joints. . = ‘ BRENTHIDZ 
Concerning Amycteride and Brachyceride, but little need be 
said. They are very peculiar and easily recognized forms, not 
represented in our fauna. 
The first is Australian; the antenne are slender, and genicu- 
lated ; the beak short and stout, deeply emarginate at tip, alike in 
both sexes ; the buccal opening is very large, and the cavity is filled 
almost completely by the mandibles, which are convex, hairy on the 
greater part of the front surface, deflexed, deeply concave beneath ; 
the gular margin is thickened and prominent, so that a deep cavity 
is seen between the gula and the mandibles, in which the mentum 
and oral organs are concealed from view; the eyes are small and 
nearly round in some, narrowed beneath in others. The front 
Coxe are contiguous, the prosternum very short; the elytra are 
connate and extend far over the flanks, so that the side pieces both 
of the meso- and metathorax are concealed. The dorsal segments 
of the abdomen are membranous, except the last which is very 
large, corneous, and convex, more so in ĝ than in 9, in the former 
itis truncate behind, exposing a semicircular 8th segment, from 
under which protrudes (Psalidura) a very powerful and complex 
genital armature, consisting of a large pair of forceps, conical ob- 
tuse, punctured and hairy, under which and seen only from below 
is a pair of transverse, thin, polished, corneous plates, also meeting 
on the median line ; between them and the forceps is a large deep 
cavity. The ventral segments are scarcely less singular; the 1st 
and 2d segments large, flat, connate, united by a sinuate suture ; 
3d and 4th very short, separated by deeply excavated straight 
sutures, 5th much larger, in ĝ very deeply and semicircularly ex- 
Cavated, almost to the base, with a tuft of stiff bristles each side 
at the front edge of the excavation ; in the @ this segment is flat, 
and meets the last dorsal at tip in the usual manner; on the sides 
the lateral upward extension of the 5th ventral is very large, but 
the spiracle is visible; the extension of the 4th and 3d segments 
