SOUTH AMERICAN DIPTERA. 243 



DIPTERA BRASILIANA, 



Ab H. H. Smith CoUecta. 



Part I— STRATIOMYIDiE, SYRPHIDiE. 



BY S. W. AVILLISTON, M. D. 



More than a year ago Mr. Herbert H. Smith, who is well known 

 to zoologists for his writings on Brazil, placed in my hand for study 

 a collection of Diptera made by him during the past few years in 

 Southern Brazil. The collection is one of great importance, both 

 on account of its size and excellent preservation. It is, I believe, 

 the largest local collection that has ever been made, or at least 

 studied, of South American Diptera. The labor in its determination 

 is necessarily very great, and often tedious; a very large pai't of the 

 species have never been recognized since Wiedemann's and oNIac- 

 quart's descriptions a half century ago, and with the exception of 

 Philippi's, Schiuer's and Lynch's publications, but little has been 

 done since that time. I have endeavored faithfully to identify such 

 of the species as have been previously described, but I trust that if 

 I have occasionally made a synonym that I will be pardoned. In- 

 deed, my chief desire has been to study and describe the species so 

 that they will again be recognizable, and I do not by any means 

 deem it necessary to give a new name to every species that appears 

 new. In many genera good descriptions cannot be made without 

 comparison with all, or nearly all the existing species of the fauna. 



Not a few of the species appear to be of wide distribution, a fact 

 that renders their recognition often more doubtful, and it is only by 

 the study and comparisons of abundant material from local faunre 

 that the real facts in such cases will be determined. It may be of 

 interest to note that most of the species described by Schiner, with 

 the locality given simply as South American, seem to be at home in 

 Southern Brazil. 



Chapada is a small village in the vicinity of Cuyaba. 



