F. R. COLE O 



in his "Fauna Austriaca/' which contained an outline description 

 of the genera known from Austria. In this article he stated that 

 the metamorphoses of these flies were unknown. In 1868, 

 Schiner made several observations on the Cyrtidae in the "Reise 

 der Novara," making the following synonomy: Henops Fab- 

 ricius referred to Ogcodes Latreille; Eriosoma Macquart and 

 Exetaxis Walker to Oaiaea Erichson ; Pithogaster Loew to Opsehius 

 Costa; Platygaster Zetterstedt to Sphaerogaster Zetterstedt; 

 Mesocera Macquart to Psilodera Gray; Mesophysa Macquart to 

 Panops Lamarck and Megalybus Philippi to Thyllis Erichson. 

 Loew in "Fauna Sudafrikas," in 1860, proposed a division of the 

 Cyrtidae into two sections — Oncodina and Cyrtina, and he held 

 to this in his Monographs. The subdivisions were based merely 

 on wing venation and of course proved a failure. Schiner's pro- 

 posed system was much more satisfactory and he adopted the 

 natural group Philopotina. He took as the basis of his classifi- 

 cation the structure of the thorax. In the Philopotinae the 

 prothoracic lobes are greatly developed and meet above. The 

 other forms are divided into two groups: the Acrocerinae with 

 the short third antennal joint and a terminal arista, and the 

 Panopinae, in which the third antennal joint is long or very 

 long and never furnished with an apical arista. Schiner re- 

 corded one hundred and three described species of Cyrtidae, 

 distributed as follows: Europe 22, Asia 4, Africa 13, America 57, 

 Australia 6, and one unknown. Sphaerogaster was the only 

 genus peculiar to Europe, nine genera being exclusively American 

 and one (Psilodera) peculiar to Africa. 



Very little has been written on this family in America, the spe- 

 cies being so rare. In 1902, Professor Melander published a short 

 paper on some of the species. Osten Sacken had alwa}' s been very 

 much interested in the family and had started a monograph in 

 1895. When he heard that Wandolleck was working on one at 

 this time, he turned over the work to this dipterist, l)ut it seems 

 that circumstances prevented the finishing of the monograph. 

 Mr. C. W.Johnson's paper on the genus Acrocera has many valu- 

 able notes on several of the species. In twenty years of collecting 

 Mr. Johnson has been able to get seventeen species of Cyrtidae, 

 and this is, I believe, the best collection in the country. 



TRANS. AM. ENT. SOC, XLV. 



