1 2 AN A ceo UNT OF BRITISH FLIES. 



Fabricius wrote in both Latin and German. We must not forget 

 to mention before leaving the present century the great work 

 commenced in 1792 by Donovan; this work, entitled "The Natural 

 History of British Insects," not being completed until 1809; it was 

 a great advance in our knowledge of insects of our own country. 



x\s we get into the nineteenth century we find a great series of 

 advances being made, more especially during the last fifty years. 

 In 1800 many valuable entomological works were published, amongst 

 which we must notice the " Fauna Suecica " and Cuvier's " Anatomie 

 Comparee," which treats the insects fully. Cuvier also formed a 

 new arrangement on the Fabrician system. He divided insects into 

 two classes : 



1. Those with jaws. 



2. Those without jaws. 



Another valuable work appearing in this year is Donovan's 

 " Insects of India." In the year 1801 Lamarck moulded another 

 theory of classification, making the mouth parts his centre of 

 observation. He formed three classes, namely : i. That in which 

 the insects had mandibles and jaws ; 2. Those with mandibles and 

 a kind of trunk. 3. Those having a sucking apparatus. He also 

 classified the Coleoptera into three sub-families, according to the 

 joints of the feet. He also removed the Linna^an aptera to a class 

 preceding the Insecta. 



In the following year we find works appearing more abundantly 

 on special orders, such as Marsham's " Coleoptera " and Kirby's 

 " Apum Anglise." Henceforth from the period we have now reached, 

 we find countless entomological works, both general and specialistic, 

 by such men as Centis, Westwood, Kirby, Zittel, and hundreds of 

 others. The formation of the Entomological Society in London, 

 in 1838, gave a fresh impetus to the study, and now in all parts of 

 the world we find entomological societies, with their valuable record 

 of observations published in the transactions. 



We must now pass on to the more important part of this chapter 

 to us, namely, the account of the classification of Diptera. We have 

 seen that Aristotle classed them in two great sections, and the various 

 names under which they have been known, some of which still cling 

 to them at the present day. Very little work is seen to have been 

 done in England in this order, as is seen by the absence of literature, 

 but on the continent the Diptera began to receive much attention 

 in the early part of the nineteenth century. Meigen, in 1820, added 

 greatly to the knowledge of flies by the publication of his great work 

 in six volumes of " European Diptera." Then followed the descrip- 



