32 



Descriptions of New 



two of my species were eventually ascertained to have been 

 separated upon these grounds alone. However, having been 

 very reluctant in the admission 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 : indeed, I have taken the 

 S. pselaphoides in the hills, at an elevation of 3500 feet, 

 under the bark of trees. None of them are quite common, 

 on the contrary, of nearly half of them I possess, only one 

 or two specimens. My S. femoralis I found under the soft, 

 rotting bark of an Erythrina Indica, S. Ceylanicus and 

 ovatus, I found dead in spiderwebs, S. graminicola, glanduli- 

 ferus 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 spiderwebs, 

 under rotting vegetable 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 previously attention to the three very natural and 

 very distinct groups which they form, and the characteristics 

 of which will at once be perceptible from the headings given 

 below. With regard to the first group (A. I. spec. 24-28) I 

 may mention that the elongated legs, largely developed poste- 

 rior trochanters and often distinct posterior coxae render the 

 motions of the insects belonging to it staggering when walking, 

 which together with their oblong, subdepressed body distin- 

 guishes them at a glance. I have subdivided them from the 

 cul triform or gooved mesosternal carina. The second group 

 (A. II. spec. 29-35) is equally well characterized as the for- 

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



