TE AN S ACTIONS 



OF THE 



NEW ZEALAND INSTITUTE, 



1900. 



I.— ZOOLOGY. 



Art. I. — Synopsis of the Diptera brachycera of New 



Zealand. 



By Captain F. W. Hutton, F.K.S. 



''Read before the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, 3rd October, 



1900.] 



In 1874 I published in our Transactions a list of the New 

 Zealand Diptera which had been described before 1870, and in 

 the same year Mr. A. G. Butler, of the British Museum, 

 edited the "Insects of the Voyage of H.M.S. 'Erebus' and 

 1 Terror,' " in which two new descriptions were given. 



In 1881 the Geological Survey of New Zealand published 

 a catalogue of our Diptera — compiled by me — which gave the 

 original descriptions of the species, but without making any 

 attempt to point out mistakes. In 1884 Mr. W. Kirby, of 

 the British Museum, supplemented this catalogue by describ- 

 ing, in the " Transactions of the Entomological Society of 

 London," three of the species which had been named, but 

 not described, by Adam White, and by adding the names of 

 four others which were unknown to me. 



In 1896 Mr. P. Marshall published, in vol. xxviii. of the 

 " Transactions of the New Zealand Institute," two papers 

 which added largely to our knowledge of the Cecidomyidce and 

 the Mycetophilidce, and last year I undertook the Tipulidce. 



The time, I think, has now arrived when a revision of the 

 whole of our Brachycera may be made with some prospect of 

 success, and the present paper has for its objects — (1) The 

 l 



