NOTES ON SOME ORIENTAL SAPROMYZID FLIES (DIP- 

 TERA), WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO THE 

 PHILIPPINE SPECIES 



By J. R. Malloch 



Of the Biological Survey, United States Department of Agriculture 



For many years I have taken a great interest in the family Sapro- 

 myzidse, collecting the species assiduously in Scotland, where they 

 occur in great numbers, and during the past decade I have devoted 

 much time to a consideration of the generic groupings. Recently 

 I published several papers on the American and Australian forms, 

 and at my request Dr. J. C. H. de Meijere has submitted for exam- 

 ination types or paratypes of most of his Oriental species,^ along 

 with specimens of a number of other species from the same region 

 described by different authors. This material, coupled with a large 

 collection from Formosa sent to me by Dr. Walther Horn, has en- 

 abled me to arrive at a definite conclusion as to the generic positions 

 of these species and the specific identities of many Philippine species 

 submitted to me for identification by the late Prof. C. F. Baker. 



The work on the genera of the family by Dr. F. Hendel ^ appeared 

 at a time when generic concepts in the group were much broader than 

 they are to-day, a fact clearly shown by the acceptance then of but 

 22 valid genera, as compared with 76 in the same author's generic 

 synopsis published in 1925. Unfortunately the broad concepts laid 

 down in 1908 have influenced most workers on the family so that 

 species have been described in the genus Lauxania which have very 

 little in common with the genotype. While I do not favor the erec- 

 tion of a large number of monobasic or poorly represented genera in 

 any group, I feel that a careful consideration of structural charac- 

 ters by a competent taxonomist ought to result in a well ordered 

 segregation of related forms in genera, or subgenera, the distribu- 

 tion of which throughout the various faunal regions can not fail to 

 be of interest and value in affording data upon the relationships and 



1 For list, see Tljds. Ento., vol. 60, 1918, p. 345. 

 ' Genera Insectorum, fasc. 68, 1908. 



No. 2751.— Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol. 74, Art. 6. 



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