Puer Lefèbvre, 1842

Diagnosis. Head capsule one and a half times wider than long; antennae thin, longer than the ocular tubercles; ocular tubercles small, flattened, wider than long and forward directed; opening gap of the jaws larger than 180°; mandibles closely approximated at the insertion; mandibles narrow, armed with three pairs of teeth and with numerous pseudo-teeth; median tooth larger than the other teeth and closer to the apical tooth; base of the mandible covered with hair-like dolichasters; labial palpi four-articulated, segments 2–4 as long as the basal width of the mandible, last segment swollen; thorax provided with elongated and flattened scolus-like processes; mesothorax bearing two pairs of scolus-like processes of which the anterior ones are bent at 90°; metathorax with an anterior pair of large scolus-like processes and a posterior pair of very short tubercle-like processes; first pair of abdominal spiracles placed on the dorsal side, the following seven pairs on ventral side; abdomen with eight pairs of dorsal scolus-like setiferous processes, ventral series absent except a pair of tubercle-like setiferous processes on the first abdominal segment; VIII sternite without odontoid processes; IX sternite with two short rastra each bearing three digging setae (Fig. 2C); body thickly covered with short, pale dolichasters (Fig. 3C); long and thin dolichasters are present on the setiferous processes.

Examined species. P. maculatus (Olivier, 1789)

Comments. The genus Puer is exclusive of the Western Palaearctic Region, comprising two species: P. maculatus and P. algericus van der Weele, 1909 reported for South-Western Europe, North Africa and Middle East (U. Aspöck & H. Aspöck 1987; H. Aspöck et al. 2001; Badano & Pantaleoni 2012). The larva of this genus was exclusively treated by Hagen (1873) thought the validity of his account was questioned (H. Aspöck et al. 1980).