Within the family Proscopiidae Serville 1839 (Orthoptera, Caelifera) the majority of the described genera belong to the subfamily Proscopiinae Liana 1980. They show sufficient differentiation to justify being divided into tribes. The present work deals with the first of these, Tetanorhynchini tr. nov.

This tribe consists of a homogenous assemblage of genera, viz. Cephalocoema Serville 1839, Tetanorhynchus Brunner von Wattenwyl 1898, Orienscopia Bentos-Pereira 2000, Scleratoscopia Jago 1989, Pseudoastroma Jago 1989, and Mariascopia Bentos-Pereira (in this issue) comprising at least 53 certain species and 31 doubtful ones, the types of the latter having been lost. All of these doubtful species belong to the genera Tetanorhynchus and Cephalocoema and the majority of them were described by Toledo Piza.

Here I present characters of the tribe. They are based on the external morphology and the male and female genitalia. A key to identify each genus is given. I further discuss the origins and relations of the family Proscopiidae, based on the distribution and characteristics of all the genera of the family, and postulate a center of origin in the Pre-Andean-Chaco shield.