The majority of the species falling in this subfamily are usually smaller and much less conspicuous than those in the other subfamilies, and with totally different habits. None are true diggers, but, on the contrary, build small oblong, or oval, clay cells, beneath the loose bark of old trees, under stones, or in crevices in old stone walls, etc., not unlike some of the Potter wasps (Eumenidœ).

The group comes evidently nearest to the Pepsinœ, the females having, as in that group, a transverse grooved line, impression or emargination on the second ventral segment. From that group, however, it is at once separated by the difference in the legs, the hind tibiæ being smooth, never serrate or spinous, or with a longitudinal ridge, but, at the most, with only a few very minute, scarcely perceptible spines.