Snpplinnent t<> niij receiit /xtper on Liponeuridoe. 353 



sliorter. There is no trace of a row of cilia. The specimens are 

 not will preserved, and fresh ones should be examined. In Lip. Q. 

 I do not perceive the above-mentioned tubercles. " 



In the tirst sentence of his letter Prof. Mik is a little too severe 

 againstLoew, when he speaks of his „error". WhatLoew wanted 

 to express is the striking bareness of the antennae of theßlepha- 

 roceridae, in comparison with other Familics of iVc^mocera, vvhich, 

 in most cases, have distinct verticillate hairs on the articles of the 

 flagelluni, and in this respect his generalisation was correct. For 

 this reason, in my paper (1895, p. 153, lines 13, 14 from top) I ren- 

 dered the sense of Loew thus: 



„Antennal flagollnin with a niicroscopic pubescence, with out 

 verticils. (Loew, 1877, p. G4, Bleph. 'ohne alle längeren Haare'.)" 



And in the following line as a corrective, I added: „In Lip. 

 yos. I perceive sorne longer hairs on the proximal third of the Seg- 

 ments." — When in 1892 I separated the Nemocera anomala from 

 the A'. vera, I pointed out that the absence of such verticillate 

 'sensitive' hairs, was oiie of the distinctive characters of this division 

 (Berl. Ent. Z. 1892, p. 446, line 13 from top). As the Blepharo- 

 ceridae belong to the IS. anomala. Loew evidently had a pre- 

 sentiment of this dift'erential character belonging to tliem. A simi- 

 lar presentiment seems to have been in the niind of Dnfour when 

 he wrote: „Ces Bibions, ces Scatopses qui, par leur tournure 

 de mouche et par leurs anteiines perfoliees, semblent protester de 

 leur annoxion aux Tipnlaires" (Ann. Soc. Ent. Fr. 18(14, p. ()15). 



The same misunderstanding of my meaning about the contrast 

 bctween the verticillnte antennae prevailing among the Nemocera 

 vera, and the absence of verticils in the ISem. anomala, occurs in 

 the paper of Dr. B. Wand olleck „Ueber die Fühlerformen der 

 Dipteren", (in the Zool. .Jahrb. YIII, 1895) which I received just as 

 I was going to send the present article to the press. The author 

 discovered under a microscope some minute hairs on the antennae 

 of Bibio and Liponeura, recognised them as true verticillate hairs 

 („echte Wirtelhaarc") and, on the strength of this character, set 

 aside, with a charming „sans gene", my division Nemocera ano- 

 mala. as if it was bascd solely on the antennae. („Der Hauptunter- 

 schied dieser beiden Gruppen liegt nach 0. S. in den Fühlern.") 

 The presence of such rudimentary hairs, even if they were proved 

 to be homologous with what are called verticillate hairs in the Ne- 

 mocera vera. is not a sufficient reason to give up a subdivision 

 bascd upon characters borrowcd from ditforent parts of the organism 

 of the N. anomala. I have a great respect for Di-. Wandoll eck 



XL. Heft III. 23 



