NOTES ON THE TYPES OF AMERICAN TWO-WINGED 

 FLIES OF THE GENUS SARCOPHAGA AND A FEW 

 RELATED FORMS, DESCRIBED BY THE EARLY 

 AUTHORS. 



By J, M. Aldrich 

 Associate Curator, Division of Insects, United States National Museum. 



The genus Sarcophaffa, in the wide sense, includes many species 

 from all parts of the world. In the writer's Catalogue of North 

 American Diptera ^ 104 species are listed ; and in Townsend's Cata- 

 logue of the Described Species of South American Calyptrate 

 Muscidae ^ there are 78 more, including the allied genus Sar- 

 cophagula, — a total of 182 species from North and South America. 

 These descriptions were all drawn up before the significance of the 

 male genitalia in distinguishing the species had been ascertained, 

 and it is almost impossible to identify any of the species without 

 seeing the original specimens. These as far as preserved are with 

 less than a dozen exceptions all in European museums. The writer, 

 in revising the North American Sarcophagas ^ was obliged to omit 

 nearly all of them from consideration, not being able to see the types. 

 Later a few were borrowed from the Vienna Natural History 

 Museum for examination. In 1929 I was detailed by the United 

 States National Museum to visit several of the important European 

 museums for the purpose of examining types of American Diptera, 

 and in the course of the work was able to see most of the American 

 types of Sarcophaga. The present paper is the result of this study. 



I am indebted to the authorities of the Naturhistorisches Museum 

 in Vienna; the British Museum of Natural History in London; 

 the Naturhistoriska Riksmuseum in Stockholm; the Universitetets 

 Zoologiske Museum in Copenhagen; the Musee National d'Histoire 

 Naturelle in Paris, for the privilege of examing material. Mr. J. E. 

 Collin, Newmarket, England, has in his private collection important 



1 Smiths. Misc. Coll., vol. 46, No. 1444, 1905. 

 = Annals New York Acad. Sci., vol. 7, 1892. 



» Sarcophaga and Allies in North America by J. M. Aldrich, La Fayette, Ind., 1916, 

 302 pages and 16 plates. 



No. 2855.— Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol. 78, Art. 12. 



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