542 Entomological Papers. [No. 6. 



pointed out by any oue, and to differ in different species) I should 

 not be surprised if one or two of my species were eventually ascer- 

 tained to have been separated upon these grounds alone. However, 

 as I have been very reluctant to admit of new species, it is just 

 as likely that individuals may hereafter be found united in one, 

 which ought to be separated into two species. But I trust that 

 neither may happen. The species were all collected by myself in 

 the immediate neighbourhood of Colombo, I have, however, no doubt 

 that they occur all over the S. W. of the Island, which is of a uniform 

 physical character, and perhaps occupy a still larger portion of it. 

 None of them are quite common, on the contrary of nearly half of them 

 I possess only 1 or 2 specimens. My S.femoralis I found under 

 the soft, rotting bark of an Erythrina indica, S. Ceylanicus and 

 ovatus I found dead in spider-webs ; S. graminicola, glanduliferus 

 and pyriformis, I have hitherto exclusively taken in the sweeping 

 net on the lawns of my garden about sunset ; the other species I 

 have met with indiscriminately in spider-webs, under rotting vege- 

 table substances and in the grass. 



After this preamble, which I trust may not be deemed quite 

 superfluous, I now enter upon the description of my species, drawing 

 attention previously to the three very natural and very distinct 

 groups which they form, the characteristics of which will at once 

 be perceptible from the headings given below. "With regard to 

 the first group (A. I. spec. 30-34) I may mention that the elon- 

 gated legs, largely developed posterior trochanters and often distant 

 posterior coxae render the motions of the insects belonging to it 

 staggering when walking, which together with their oblong, sub- 

 depressed body distinguishes them at a glance. I have subdivided 

 them from the cultriform or grooved mesosternal carina. The second 

 group (A. II. spec. 35-41) is equally well characterized as the 

 former by the more robust, pyriform and subconvex body of the 

 insects. S. pselaphoides in the former and S. advolans in the present 

 group form connecting links between the two, especially S. psela- 

 phoides, which in general appearance rather belongs to the second ; 

 upon closer examination, however, it is easily ascertained to be an 

 anomalous member of the former. From the rounded or narrowed 

 occiput I have divided the second group into two subdivisions giving 



