296 Mr. J. Walton on the genera Pissodes, Hypera, ^c, 
anteriorly, dilated and rounded at the sides posteriorly, eonvex 
above, elosely rugose-punetate, a slender abbreviated carinula 
on the middle of the baek, and two remote foveolse on the disc. 
Elytra elongate, punctate-striate, the punctures deep, oblong, 
remote, very unequal, small towards the base and apex, and much 
larger in the middle ; the interstices closely rugulose, alternately 
broader and elevated; sprinkled with obscure lutescent scales, 
and with a broad unequal abbreviated fascia behind the middle 
composed of flavescent scales. Legs elongate, pale rufo-piceous, 
femora and tibise annulated with whitish scales in the middle. 
Length 4 lines. 
There is one specimen of this insect, reputed to be British, in 
the collection of the National Museum. 
Genus Hypera, Germ. (1821), Curt., Steph., Westw. 
Phytonomus, Schdnh. (1826)*, Spry et Shuck. 
Great confusion has hitherto prevailed in this country as to the 
specific identity of the insects of this genus : although our cata- 
logues contain from twenty-nine to thirty-one specific names, of 
which seven have been sunk into varieties and twenty- two de- 
scribed as specifically distinct by Mr. Stephens in his ^ Manual 
of British Coleoptera,^ yet, after a most rigorous comparative ex- 
amination of numerous specimens, 1 have not been able to iden- 
tify more than fourteen distinct species ; I have therefore ven- 
tured to go further, by reducing eight more names into syno- 
nyms or varieties. It appears to me that British entomologists 
have relied too much on the colour and markings of the scales, 
and on the colour of the difierent organs of the body, as specific 
distinctions, but these characters in a majority of the species are 
extremely variable and consequently unsafe to depend upon. I 
have corrected the names of a few insects by means of well-au- 
thenticated foreign specimens, and in accordance with the autho- 
rities so often named in my former notes, which will I hope have 
a tendency to establish the nomenclature upon a uniform and 
permanent foundation. 
1. Hypera punctata, Fab., et auct. alior. 
Cure, medius et aush'iacus, Marsh., Kirb. MSS. 
2. H. fasciculata, Herbst, et auct. alior. 
— sticticus, Kirb. MSS. 
Very rare and local : it has not occurred of late years to my 
* I cannot find any reason assigned by Schonherr for changing the name 
Hypera-, I have therefore, in accordance with the just law of priority, followed 
those British authors who have retained it ; yet it is rather remarkable that 
Germar hinr.self, with many other continental entomologists, have adopted 
Phxjtonomus. Latreille employed a similar name {Hyper la) for a genus of 
Crustacea, which occurs for the first time in ‘ Cuv. Reg. Anim.’ iv. 1829. 
