Mr. J. Walton on the (jcncra Oxystoma and ^lagclalis. 221 quite certain of the direction of the haii-on the forehead, though it appears to be directed forwards, nor of the sex. Besides the nine species here described, there have been de-scribed two which do not exactly agree A^ath any specimens I have seen, viz. M. chrysurus, I. Geolf., Guerin, Mag. Zool. 1832, and M. flavicaudatus, Humboldt. XXIII. — Notes, i^c. on the genera of Insects Oxystoma and Mag-dalis. By John Walton, Esq., F.L.S. Fam. CURCULIONID.E. Genus Oxystoma, Stcph., Westiv., Spry and Shuckard. Mil. Stephens has created this genus for the reception of the following three species, separated by him from that of Apion, which he refers to Dumeril ; but the latter author has taken his characters from Attelahus Pomonce of Fabricius*, and it is very remarkable, that Dumeril appears not to have been aware that Kirby had previously characterized the genus Apion as a tribe of insects which includes that species, consequently the name Oxy-stoma of Dumeril is cited by Kirby and Schonherr as a synonym to that of Apion. I have always entertained considerable doubt, from the characters selected by Mr. Stephens, whether Apion fuscirostris, Ulicis and Genistte ought to be separated generically ; Kirby and Curtis have located them in a separate section in the genus Apion, because the rostrum is bent downwards or nutant (a character common to many species), and this appears to be the chief character upon which the new genus Oxystoma is founded. It is generally understood that the female of Oxys. Ulicis, with its remarkable elongate deflexed rostrum, is the tj^pe of the genus as figured and referred to in the ' British Coleoptera •" by Spry and Shuckard, and is also referred to Ap. Ulicis of Kirby by ^Vest-wood in his ''Generic Synopsis^; but Stephens describes the second and third joints of the antennse as " subglobose,^^ whereas they are elongate, neither does the form of the rostrum nor the structure of the antennre in the male agree with the characters given by him ; therefore I think he has di-awn them from Oxys. fuscirostiis, as it stands fu'st in the genus. The three insects in question approx-imate rather closely in general habit and affinity to some of those species of the genus Apion which are placed by Germar and Schonherr in the section that have their antennae seated near to the base of the rostrum, and likewise have the rostrum (when in its natural position) deliexed ; for example, the small males of Ap. * Diimer. Consid. sur les Ins. tab. 16. f. G, 1823.
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