260 SOUTH AMERICAN DIPTERA. 



A C4T4LOGIE OF THE DIPTKRA OF 

 SOUTH AMERICA. 



BY W D. HUNTER, THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA. 



Part I, Bibliography and Nemocera. 



INTEODUCTORY. 



For many years the study of the Diptera of South America has 

 beeu impeded by the lack of a catalogue of the described species. 

 The reader may gain an idea of the almost hopeless difficulty of 

 identifying species by a glance at the bibliograpy, which contains 

 more titles than did the bibliography of the North American Dip- 

 tera, published in 1878, after more than twenty years of work and 

 publication by Osten Sacken and Loew. Moreover, practically no 

 groups have been monographed for that continent, and but very 

 few for even a small district of it. A catalogue has become an 

 absolute necessity. 



The history of the cataloging of the Diptera of South America, 

 up to the present time, is very brief. Dr. Williston has catalogued 

 the species of the two families, Syrphidse and Asilidse, in the Tran- 

 sactions of this Society,* and Townsend has likewise treated the 

 Calyptrate niascidce in the Annals of the New York Academy of 

 Sciences, f Outside of these no attempt has been made to catalogue 

 the species of any group of the South American fauna. Some years 

 ago, however, Enrique Lynch Arribalzaga planned in an excellent 

 manner a complete catalogue ; but the plan was changed eventually 

 so as to include only the valley of the river Plata. The untiring 

 pains that characterizes this work, as it does all of the writings of 

 Enrique Arribalzaga, makes it very much to be regretted that this 

 catalogue was interrupted, as happened when the genus 3Ii<l<t* was 

 reached, and has remained incompleted. It should also be men- 

 tioned in this connection that the venerable Osten Sacken at one 

 time started the preparation of a list of all of the exotic species of 

 Diptera, and in the Berliner Entomologische Zeitung, for 1883, states 

 that he hoped to complete and publish the portion dealing with the 

 Nemocera soon. The advancing age of the writer has, unfortu- 

 nately, prevented the realization of his hopes. 



* Syrphidse, xiii, 1886, pp. 308-324; Asilidse. xviii, 1891, pp. 67-91. 

 t VII, 1892. pp. 1-44. 



