OCR Text |
Show 1893.] FROM ST. VINCENT, WEST INDIES. 711 armed beneath with about four long spines, which have shorter spines between them throughout the greater part of the length. Scutellum long, compressed and acute at tip. Wing-covers narrow, the costal margin almost straight, a little curved at tip ; veins of the corium distinctly prominent. Connexivum strongly elevated along the margin of the abdomen. SPH^EROBIUS GRACILIS, sp. nov. Coal-black, polished beneath and on the anterior lobe of the pronotum, invested with erect hairs on most parts of the surface, both above and below. Head dull black, set with remote bristly hairs, remotely punctate, scabrous especially on the clypeus, the throat coarsely punctate; antennae fulvo-piceous, with the apical joint and tips of the others fuscous; rostrum piceous, paler on the middle, reaching between the anterior coxae. Pronotum jet-black, with the posterior lobe rufo-piceous, coarsely and evenly punctate, pubescent, the anterior lobe set with bristly hairs, obsoletely punctate in remote lines, a few series of more distinct punctures upon the lower part of the sides. Legs piceous black, paler on the tibiae, the tarsi chiefly testaceous, the anterior tibia of the left side (possibly of both sides) armed with a long curved spine. Scutellum pubescent, coarsely, remotely punctate, paler at tip. Corium whitish testaceous, coarsely punctate with brown in longitudinal series, the posterior half blackish brown, with a subquadrate pale spot exteriorly before the tip, the base also brown; membrane short, incomplete, blackish, pale at base. Abdomen black, polished. Length to tip of venter 4| millim.; width of base of pronotum 1 millim. One specimen only was captured, on the leeward side of the island. As it is closely glued to the slip of card the underside and femora of the right side cannot be studied. The presence of the spur on the anterior femur adds a new element of structure to this remarkable insect. It bears much resemblance to an ant, and is much narrower than the other species described as Herceus insignis, Uhler. Fam. CAPSIDJE. CYLLOCEPS, gen. nov. Long elliptical, blunt at both extremities, almost flat above, polished, with the hemelytra thin, pellucid. Head very short, vertical, tbe sides enclosed by the vertical eyes ; tylus very short, projecting a little before the line of the eyes ; vertex transverse, cylindrico-convex on the middle, scarcely higher than the low-placed upper line of the eyes ; bucculae wide apart, narrow; rostrum slender, the basal joint longer than the head; gula constricted; lobe behind the eye in contact with the pronotum. Pronotum transverse, trapezoidal, feebly sloping, almost flat, destitute of a collum the sides oblique, bordered with a linear callous margin P R O C . Z O O L . Soc-1893, N o . XLVIII. 48 |