192 Transactions South African Philosophical Society, [vol. xiii. 



the margin ; prosternum hairy, rnesosternum short, hairy, m eta- 

 sternum broad and having a median longitudinal groove, either 

 densely or sparingly hairy or occasionally squamulose ; metathoracic 

 episterna narrow, their lateral margins keeled ; coxae narrow, trans- 

 verse ; legs robust, anterior tibiae bi- or tri-dentate outwardly, 

 posterior obliquely bi-carinate, hind ones with two long, apical spurs, 

 more flattened in the female than in the male, tarsi long or very 

 long, with the basal joints knobby or even dentate inwardly at apex 

 in the male (S. ciliata), but always shorter in the female ; the basal 

 joint of the hind ones may be longer, of the same length, or shorter 

 than the second ; the long curved claws are cleft underneath, and 

 have a very small basal tooth, and the upper one is either longer and 

 as robust as the lower, or much more slender and even shorter, but 

 it is never obliterated. The shape of these teeth differ, however, not 

 only in the sexes, but also in the anterior and posterior legs of the 

 male especially. 



The livery of these insects consists in minute, greyish hairs, 

 which is, however, sometimes squamose ; occasionally, but seldom, 

 however, there are a few not very densely set scales, and it may be 

 said that all the punctures are setigerous, but they are never so 

 dense that these hairs or scales hide the background, which varies 

 from pale testaceous to chestnut or rusty brown, and even black. 

 In some species found in the Cape Colony the pectus is peculiarly 

 villose. 



These insects are crepuscular, perhaps nocturnal. Two of them 

 (S. unicolor and S. tumida) are found in the neighbourhood of Cape 

 Town in the heaps of old excrements piled outside their galleries by 

 the white ant Hodotermes viator, a subterraneous species occurring 

 all over South Africa, at the foot of bushes which have grown in 

 these debris, and in company with the Dynastidous species Syrich- 

 thus verus and Pycnoschema corydon. It is very probable that many 

 other species have similar habits. 



The species are extremely local, only one or two range from 

 the Western Provinces of the Cape Colony to Natal. One species, 

 however, very numerous in Natal and the Transvaal (S. squamifera), 

 has been recorded from Ovampoland, and I have captured a single 

 specimen near Cape Town. 



All the species are remarkably uniform in shape and livery, and 

 but for the help afforded by the shape of the genital armature of the 

 male they could hardly be distinguished from each other. I have 

 examined the types and co-types of Boheman and of Brenske, but 

 I have not been able to identify with certainty three of Burmeister's 

 species. I have had also the loan of species formerly belonging to 



