506 COLEOPTEROUS INSECTS FOUND IN 
Gen. Hylobius. 
H. Abietis, Germar. Steph. Cur. Abietis, Linn. Stew. 
Cur, Pi7iiy Marsh. Don. Rynch. Pini, Leach. 
This insect was first ascertained to be an inhabitant of 
Britain by the late President of the Linnean Society, Sir 
J. E. Smith, who found it in Ravelston wood, near 
Edinburgh. The imperfect description of Ljnne, who 
appears in some of his works to have confounded it with 
another species, has rendered it difficult to identify his in- 
sect, and its synonymy is consequently involved in consider- 
able complexity. From an inaccurately named specimen 
in the Linnean Cabinet, Marsham was led to believe that 
the present insect was the Cur. Pini, Linn., and according- 
ly described it under that name in his Entomologia Britan- 
iiica. Neither PaykuU nor Fabricius have described it 
with their usual perspicuity, the latter, in his Species In- 
sectorum, regarding it as a sexual variety of an insect be- 
longing to an entirely dissimilar genus. It is by no means 
a scarce species throughout Scotland, but it is said to be 
local in England, occurring chiefly in Cumberland and 
Shropshire. The larva inhabits the wood of the Scotch Fir 
{Pinus sylvestris)^ and often proves destructive to young 
plantations. The manners of the perfect insect are well 
described by Li^jne, in his peculiar style : " Tarde incedit, 
arete apprehendit, tenaciter adhseret, ore frustra cutem mor- 
dere tentat captivus." It may be found from June to Sep- 
tember *. 
* Some remarks on the habits and synonjany of Hylobius Abietis, 
by W. S. Macleay, Esq., will be found in the first volume of the 
Zoological Journal. 
