Gen. Char.: Body densely hirsute. Head small, subglobose, not so wide as the thorax; the vertex glabrous, with a longitudinal, short, deep channel, crossed in its centre by a deeper transverse one, wherein the ocelli are disposed in a very slightly-curved line; antennæ short, geniculated, and filiform; the scape half as long as the flagellum, the first joint of which is globose, the second subclavate, the rest short and subequal, and the terminal one compressed laterally; face flat, densely pubescent; clypeus subtriangular, gibbous, its base truncated, and apex convexly lobated, or straight and margined; labrum lunulate; mandibles broad at the base, and obscurely tridentate; cibarial apparatus moderate; tongue twice the length of the labium, clothed with pubescence to within a brief distance of its apex, and terminating in a small knob; paraglossæ about one-fourth the length of the tongue, coadunate at the base, and acuminate; labial palpi three-fourths the length of the tongue, broad at the base, and tapering to the extremity of the acute apex of the second joint, which is about one-fifth the length of the first, the two terminal joints very short and articulated laterally just before the end of the second; labium one-half the length of the tongue, broadest at its base, and acutely produced in the centre of its inosculation; maxillæ as long as the tongue, subhastate and acuminate; maxillary palpi two-jointed, short, sometimes equal, and slightly robust, or with the basal joint very robust, and its terminal joint twice as long and linear. Thorax globose, very hirsute, whence its divisions are inconspicuous; scutellum lunate; metathorax truncated; wings with three submarginal cells subequal, or the third the longest, and a fourth slightly commenced, the second receiving the first recurrent nervure near its centre, and the third receiving the second recurrent nervure close to its extremity; legs robust, pilose, the four anterior plantæ with a dense, short, setose brush beneath; the posterior tibiæ triangular, very smooth, and irregularly concave on their external surface, fringed with long pile along its two external edges, and its extremity tipped with a short pecten of stiff setæ; the plantæ elongate and broad, nearly equal, externally shagreened and spinulose, with a longish auriculated process at the external angle of the superior edge, a dense brush of short, stiff hair beneath, and a short pecten of stiff setæ edging its subemarginate extremity; the claw-joint the longest of the four short subsequent joints, and the claws bifid. Abdomen ovate or globose, deflected towards its extremity, its base retuse, the last segment triangular, and terminating obtusely.
The MALE differs in always being more intensely coloured; in having the antennæ distinctly longer, less distinctly geniculated, the scape shorter, the third joint of the flagellum almost as short as its basal joint, and the fourth as long as the terminal one, which latter two are the longest of all, and the joints from the fourth to the eleventh severally more or less slightly curved.
NATIVE SPECIES.
1. lapidarius, Linnæus, ♂ ♀ ⚲. 6-10 lines.
lapidarius, Kirby.
2. Harrisellus, Kirby, ♂ ♀ ⚲. 6-10 lines. ([Plate XVI.] fig. 1 ♀.)
3. subterraneus, Linnæus. ♂ ♀ ⚲. 5-10 lines.
Soroensis, Kirby?
4. Latreillellus, Kirby, ♂ ♀ ⚲. 5-8 lines.
Tunstallana, Kirby.