162 Journal Xew York Entomological Society. t^'°i- ^^^i- 



paper. The first four species proposed are placed in Hyalomyia; 

 they are called punctigcra, aldrichii, robcrtsonii and piirpuresccns, 

 respectively. These are each and all sunk under Phorantha occi- 

 dcntis Walker, by Mr. Coquillett. There exists scarcely a shadow of 

 a doubt that they belong there. The next species proposed is Tricho- 

 poda aurantiaca. This appellation has since given place to cilipcs 

 Wied. Then follows one called Cistogaster pallasii. This descrip- 

 tion was unrecognizable to Mr. Coquillett, but Dr. J. M. Aldrich says^ 

 " The type looks to me like a melanic variety of immncnlata." The 

 next species proposed is Ocyptcra argentca; it survives as such. 

 The next and last species described is called Wahlbergia atripennis 

 which name now rests in peace under the inscription Xanthomclana 

 atripennis Say. 



Thus it is seen that of seven proposed species but one has escaped 

 extinction or the stain of grave suspicion. 



The late Dr. John B. Smith once stated his belief in the theory 

 that a man's earlier work is usually an index to what may be expected 

 of his more mature state of development. Let us see whether or not 

 this theory applies in the case under scrutiny. Seventeen years have 

 passed, as the story books say. ]\Ir. Townscnd can no longer be con- 

 sidered in his callow youth as a dipterologist. He has published 

 rather plentifully meantime. Among the most important of these 

 writings is one called the Taxonomy of the Muscoidean Flies. - 

 Throughout almost this entire work he lays himself open to criticism 

 by incautious proposals and generalizations. The student will find 

 on page ii8, the proposal of ten new species of Lncilia all based on 

 the most trivial of cha^tactic characters. These have recently re- 

 tired^ to a well-merited oblivion under the work of an able young 

 investigator, ]\Ir. J. D. Tothill. Seventeen years of experience have 

 evidently made little change in the methods of the irrepressible Mr. 

 Townsend- 



In 1908, it became apparent, chiefly through the work of the 

 Gypsy Moth Laboratory staflf, including Mr. Townsend, that some 

 taxonomic possibilities resided in the reproductive organs and methods 

 of reproduction in the Muscoidean flies. He at once turned his atten- 



1 List of North American Diptera, p. 422. 



2 Smithsonian Inst. 1908. 



3 Annals Ent. Soc. America, Vol. 6, p. 241. 



