LOEW AS A DIPTEROLOGIST 
113 
coxae, the long spurs on the hind tibiae, the difference in the na¬ 
ture of the hairiness of the wings, the peculiar structure of the 
larvae, especially of their head, the absence, in the pupa of Sciara , 
of tubular, horn-like prothoracic spiracles). 1 He admits that, under 
such circumstances, the partisans of the opinion that Sciara is a 
Mycetophilid would be right, if the genus Zygoneura had not been 
discovered in the meantime. It holds, according to him, an inter¬ 
mediate position. “ If Sciara is placed among the Mycetophilidae, 
Zygoneura would more naturally have to remain among the Ceci- 
domyiidae. For a final decision, we must wait for the discovery of 
the early stages of Zygoneura .”—Now I had, in 1862, described 
the early stages of this genus (in my above-quoted paper on the 
larvae of Mycetophilidae'), and had shown that the larva of Zygo¬ 
neura is quite like that of a Sciara , and the pupa shows the horn¬ 
like thoracic spiracles which occur in some species of Sciara (comp, 
figure 22 at the bottom of my plate). And many years after me, 
Beling (T Viener Ent. Zeit ., 1885, p. 308) likewise described the larva 
of Zygoneura as being exactly like that of Sciara (“ der Larva einer 
Sciara vollkommen gleich gestaltet ”). 
In 1862 (“Monographs North American Diptera,” Yol. I), Loew 
finally placed Sciara among the Mycetophilidae , but, nevertheless, 
again with the remark (p. 13), “ that it shows some affinity with 
the Cecidomyiidae .” Whether this change of opinion had any con¬ 
nection with my publication on the larva of Zygoneura in the same 
year, I am unable to ascertain. And yet notwithstanding this 
affinity between Mycetophilidae and Cecidomyiidae thus correctly 
indicated, Loew placed the two families very far from each other, 
the Blepharoceridae , Psyclwdidae, and Tipulidae intervening be¬ 
tween them ! Thus the same Loew who had reproached Meigen 
with overlooking a pretended close relationship between Lasioptera 
and Sciara , and taunted Zetterstedt for considering Sciara as a 
fungicole, Loew, twenty years later, lost in his perplexities, had 
not reached any definite conclusion about Sciara! Ilaliday in 
1 In this Loew was mistaken ; the pupae of some Sciara have such tubular spira¬ 
cles, as Loew himself had stated in the Stett. Ent. Zeit., 1813, p. 30. Compare also my 
paper: “On the larvae of Mycetophilidae ” (15, 1862), or its reprint (113, 1886). The 
references will be found on p. 158 and 165 of my original edition, and on p. 11 and 17 
of the reprint. 
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