20 AN A ceo UNT OF BRITISH FLIES. 



i. Nemocera. ii. Nemocera anomala. 



Cecidomyidse. Bibionidse. 



Mycetophilidse. Simulidae. 



Culicidje. Blepharoceridse. 



Chironomidae. Rhyphidse. 



Psychodidse. Orphnephilidae. 



Tipulidae. 

 DixidEe (?). 



iii. Eremochata. 



Stratiomyidse, 

 Tabanidse. 

 Acanthomeridae. 

 Leptidse (plus Xylophagid?e). 

 The family Xylophagidce must be given up and united to the 

 LeptidcE. 



As we receive more material from the tropics and foreign parts 

 we shall continually find it necessary to alter the classification. The 

 old classification has been adopted to suit European forms ; but as 

 the numerous anomalous forms from Chili and North America have 

 shown that the present classification will not hold good, we may 

 expect still further changes when new material is brought from 

 Australia, Africa, and other places, where the Dipterous fauna is 

 scarcely known. It is by the study of exotic forms that we shall 

 eventually arrive at a satisfactory classification, and only by this 

 means. In a letter we received from Mr. Coryndon Mathews we 

 are told as follows : " Only a month or two ago Major Yerbury sent 

 me a box of flies from Trincomali, Ceylon, for identification, and 

 amongst some fourteen or fifteen Asilidce, there was material enough 

 to upset three of Schiner's and Rondani's genera." 



The immense importance of the study of foreign species in regard 

 to the classification of flies is thus emphasised ; and until we are 

 well acquainted with the Dipterous fauna of all parts of the globe 

 we shall still be in the same changeable and unsatisfactory state in 

 regard to their systematic arrangement. 



For the present we cannot do better than follow Brauer's arrange- 

 ment, especially as it has been adopted in the only list of British 

 species. 



