BY ARTHUR M. LEA. 191 



tarsal joint moderately wide, deeply bilobed, claw-joint feebly 

 pubescent; claws feeble. Elliptic-ovate or ovate, strongly convex, 

 punctate, apterous. 



This genus is one of the numerous allies of Poropterus; from 

 that genus it is at once distinguished by its strongly grooved 

 femora; ^icroporoptertis also has grooved femora, but the eyes 

 and intermediate abdominal segments are different. 



The sexual differences are but slightly marked (I have taken 

 pairs of several species in cop.). The male has the scape inserted 

 slightly nearer the apex of rostrum than in the female, the 

 rostrum is a little more densely punctate and the whole 

 insect is smaller. The scape varies in length from little more 

 than the length of two basal joints of funicle to the length of tfie 

 funicle itself. The pectoral canal is squamosa or setose in the 

 majority of species. The two basal segments of the abdomen are 

 large and usually equal, but the 1st is sometimes considerably 

 larger than the 2nd; the intermediates can scarcely be said to be 

 depressed below level of apical, though the greater part of each is 

 usually depressed, leaving only a narrow ridge in front. The 

 coxae are almost contiguous laterally, though widely separated 

 internally; the tibise are punctured in rows, and as each puncture 

 carries a scale they appear to be grooved and to a certain extent 

 resemble the tibiae of many of the species belonging to Melanterius 

 and Tyrtceosus. All the species are opaque or subopaque and 

 black with dull red antennae; the tibite and tarsi are sometimes 

 tinged with red. They all (with the exception of xanthorrhonoi 

 and hispidus) live (during the day time at least) on, or just below 

 the surface of the ground, or under logs and stones. 



The type of the genus {D. squamosus) was described by Mr. 

 Pascoe in 1870; but subsequently* he described a number of 

 species and referred them to Acalles. Of the species referred by 

 him to that genus and which certainly belong to Decilaus, I have 

 been enabled to identify perditus, distans, memnonius, forami- 

 iiosuB and crihricollis ; A. tntc/eatus I have not seen, but the 



* Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., (4), xiii. 1874, p. 415. 



