Pantomorus

Middle tibiæ of male unarmed.

Middle tibiæ of male armed at the apex internally with a sharp mucro projecting inwards.

This genus is closely allied to Naupactus, from which it differs in the species being apterous. The brief characters given for the genus by Lacordaire are erroneous, the insertion of the antennæ being terminal as in the allied genera. Thus it is not surprising that a fresh name should have been proposed for the genus by Pascoe, who distinguished it correctly from Naupactus by the absence of shoulders. Schönherr understood the genus so imperfectly that he placed most of the species known to him in Naupactus.
 
Pantomorus appears to be specially characteristic of our region, a few species only having as yet been found in S. America, while none have been recognized as occurring in the United States.
 
Two of the species described here—P. distans and P. robustus—are assigned only with considerable doubt to the genus; and I think it probable that when specimens can be obtained for examination they may prove to possess partially developed wings.

Amongst the thirty-two Central-American species placed by Dr. Sharp under Pantomorus (type P. albosignatus, Boh.) some, P. longulus, P. distans, &c., have the tips of the hind tibiæ furnished with, at most, a double row of fimbriæ (=Aramigus, Horn); others, nos. 25—30, &c., have the tips of the hind tibiæ dilated into an oval enclosed scaly space (=Pantomorus, Schönh., sensu stricto, and Phacepholis, Horn); others again are intermediate in this respect, and Horn's genus Aramigus would therefore be better sunk under Pantomorus*. P. globicollis, the type of Athetetes. Pascoe, has the tips of the hind tibiæ squamose as in Phacepholis, and the second ventral segment of the male armed with two or three small transversely placed tubercles†. The males of Phacepholis elegans and P. candida, Horn (if the insects sent me under these names by the U. S. National Museum are correctly named), have similar tubercles on the second ventral segment (elegans, 5, and candida, 2), though this character is not mentioned by the American author; Pierce, too, in his recent revision of the genus Phacepholis [Journ. Econ. Ent. iii. p. 363 (1910)] appears to have also overlooked them.* Faust has referred a Venezuelan insect to Phacepholis, P. albaria.

† The other Central-American forms (of which the males are known) possessing this character are P. brevipes, annectens, albicans, and viridicans, Sharp, and a new species described below.

Pantomorus is a genus of broad-nosed weevils in the beetle family Curculionidae. There are more than 40 described species in Pantomorus.