Genus Ancyloscelis Latreille

Ancyloscelis Berthold, 1827: 426 . Nomen nudum (latinization of french name Ancyloscele Latreille).

Ancyloscelus Berthold, 1827: 565. Nomen nudum.

Ancyloscelis Latreille, 1829: 355, no included species. Type species: Ancylosceles [sic] ursinus Haliday, 1836, first included species.

Leptergates Holmberg, 1887: 224. Nomen nudum.

Leptergatis Holmberg, 1903: 422 . Type species: Leptergatis halictoides Holmberg, 1903, by designation of Lutz and Cockerell, 1920: 592.

Dipedia Friese, 1906: 92 . Type species: Ancyloscelis armatus Smith, 1854, by designation of Lutz and Cockerell, 1920: 592.

Diagnosis. Ancyloscelis contains species 6 to 11 mm in length, characterized by the swollen hind femora of the males and the bicolored scopa on the hind tibiae and basitarsi of the females. The genus Ancyloscelis differs from other genera of Emphorini by the presence of a paraocular carina along most of inner eye margin, the vein cu-v of hind wing less than half as long as second abscissa of vein M-Cu, the broad metapleura, the maxillary palpus of the female with sparse, short hairs, the mandible of the male short and gently curved, the T7 of the male rounded apically, the S7 of the male with a broad disc and two or four small apical lobes, shorter than the disc, and the large, curved male gonostylus, usually flattened and longer than the gonocoxite. Figures of the male hidden sterna and genitalia can be found in Michener (1954), Michener & Moure (1957), and Rodríguez & Roig-Alsina (2004).

The genus is distributed from southern United States through tropical America to central Argentina.