INSECT A. 
149 
it, previous to a critical examination, as an abnormal member of that 
group, in which the external edge of the tibiae was edentate. But, 
on closer inquiry, it proves to be undoubtedly one of the Curcu- 
lionidat, the entire structure of its slender, toothless, apically uncinate 
tibiae, and its unreceived tarsi, assigning it to that family. From 
Ilhyncolus, however, to which it is clearly related, it recedes com- 
pletely in its excessively short, broad, thick, and subtriangular 
rostrum, in its very abbreviated and differently constructed antennae 
(which have apparently no lateral scrobs for the reception of their 
scape), in its minute punctiform scutellum, its more globose, 
exposed head, and in its longer feet ; and I should consider that the 
Madeiran Hexar thrum is perhaps its nearest described ally, though 
in that genus the funiculus is only 6-articulate, whereas in Slenoscelis 
it is 7.’” 
Microxylobius, Chevr.* 
Of this genus Mr. Wollaston writes : “ The excessive importance 
at St. Helena (where it is manifestly aboriginal, and to which it 
seems to be peculiar) of the little Curculionideous genus Microxy- 
lobius induces me to enter more fully into its details, in this memoir, 
than I should otherwise have thought it necessary to do.” It com- 
prises small black Beetles, varying from a twelfth to a quarter of an 
inch in length, and generally so extremely bright and glossy as to be 
easily distinguished from the other Beetles of the Island ; moreover, 
they are chiefly confined to the native vegetation on the high land, 
at an altitude of 2700 feet above the sea, where they may be found 
abundantly in the stems and branches of the cabbage-trees ; some 
few have extended down to an altitude of about 1700 feet, and taken 
up their abode in oak, loquat, and other exotic trees ; but it is fully 
manifest that, with the cabbage-trees, they form a portion of the 
aboriginal occupants of the Island. 
*M. westwoodii, Chevr., of which Mr. Wollaston writes: 
“ This species being the one for which the genus was originally 
founded by M. Chevrolat, I have no choice but to regard it as the 
type of the group; and it is therefore extremely unfortunate that I 
* In a subsequent paper on the Genera of the Cossonidre, Trans. Ent. Soc. 1S73, Pt. IY. 
Oct. p 520, 521, Mr. Wollaston separates this genus into three, placing M. cossonoides under 
a new genus named Lamprochrus., Woll., and M. chevrulaiii, M. conicollis, M. monilicornis, 
H. terebrans, M. ublileratus, M. debilis, and M. angustus under the genus Acanthomerus, 
Boheinan : the others remaining as Microxylobii. 
