236 sykphidjE. 



larva of one (Microdon) has been described as a Gastropod 

 mollask {SciitelUgera, Spix) ! The pupa is enclosed in the har- 

 dened skin of the larva ("coarctate"), 



Scopoli (a. u. 1763) first distinguislied this group from the 

 rest of the Liuusean Muhccb, by an essential character taken from 

 the structure of the proboscis with the development of the 

 maxillary lancets (Ent. Carn. p. 351. g. Conops) ; but having 

 overlooked the slender tongue in Rhhigia rostrata, lie was led to 

 constitute a distinct genus for this insect (ibid. 358), and he left 

 a few species of the family still in the genus Mvsca. Fabricius 

 (a. d. 1775) defined the contents more successfully (Syst. Ent. g. 

 Sp'p/ms), but retained the distinction of the genus Uhingia. 

 Harris, in his 'Exposition of English Insects' (a. d. 1782), ex- 

 hibited the distinctive characters of the wings of this family 

 under three sections, which may be exemplified by the genera 

 Volucella, Eristalis, and Sijrplms respectively. Latreille (Precis, 

 A. D. 1797) added the genus Ceria, and in 1802 gave the denomi- 

 nation to the family ; in which fifteen genera were characterized, 

 the year following, by Meigen (Illiger's Magazine, vol. ii.). In 

 the ' Systema Antliatorum,' the latest work of Eabricius, bearing 

 date 1805, the genera Syrphus and RJunyia of his previous 

 arrangements are distributed under twelve genera. The disposition 

 is faulty in many respects, and as he did not attend to the prior 

 ap])hcations of the generic names, the book is an authority only 

 as regards the species described in it. In 1809 LatreiUe gave a 

 more detailed character of the family, wliich he divided into 

 sections and fourteen genera, but still including in it the genus 

 Pijmnculns (Gen. Or. et Ins. tom. iv.). Eallen, in his first 

 arrangement of the family (a, d. 1810), included not only Tipun- 

 culus, but Scenopinus also, in the Sp-pJdci, following Eabricius in 

 the application of the generic names : in 1816 he described the 

 Swedish species, and hmited the family by the removal of Sceuo- 

 2nnus. Meigen's first work on the species of European Diptera, 

 published in 1804, was not continued so far as to the present 

 family ; but liis arrangement in the third volume of the ' Syste- 

 matische Beschreibuug ' (a. d. 1822), Anth additions in the later 

 volumes, has not been superseded by any other. Macquart (Ins. 

 Dipt, du Nord de France) and Zetterstedt (Diptera Scandinavise) 

 have contributed much to the illustration of this family ; and Loew 

 (Entom. Zeitung) has subjected several of the genera to a 

 thorough critical investigation, and has enriched them with many 

 new species. 



