Orthorrhapha Brachybera. 37 1 



recogiiized tlie aftiiiity between thc Empidae and Duliclwpodidae: 

 cumparc in Curtis, Brit. Ent. Dipt. nnder Opetia loncliopteroides 

 (1834), and later, the very instructive Introductions (due to Haliday) 

 to tlie Empidae and Dolichopodidae in Walk er 's Ins. Brit. Dipt. 

 Vol. I, p. 8G— 87 and p. 118 (1851). Just such transitional fornis 

 secm oftcn to occur in Ncw-Zealand. In my small collcction of Dip- 

 tera froni tliat country, I liave a serics of Phyllodromina with 

 cnormously dcveloped front coxae. 



On the othcr band, the Asilidae seem to be connected with the 

 Empidae by nicans of the section Apiocerina, in wliicli I persist 

 in rccognizin^, not Mydaidae, but Asilidae, „adapted to pcculiar 

 conditions of lifo" (o! S., Berl. Ent. Z. 1S91, p. 314). These con- 

 ditions of lifo bccanic cicar since the discovery of the habits of 

 J^haphiomydas „hovcring over flowers like a humming-bird" (Co- 

 qnillet, in the West. Am. Scientist, Jan. 18!>1, p. 85), which explains 

 the elongation of tlicir proboscis, and the strengthcning of their ve- 

 nation along the posterior niargin of the wing (not unlike the vc- 

 nation of the Cyrtids Eidonchus and Lasia, which likewise huin 

 al)out flowers). „The change in the naturc of the food lias nothing 

 to astonish us when we call to mind the Tabanidae, Empidae and 

 other families, containing blood-sucking, predaceous and flower-sucking 

 species at the sanie timc" (0. S., Berl. Eint. Z. 1891, p. 314). 

 Rhaphiomydas has the aspect of a large, flower-sucking Empid. 

 Apiocerina have not been discovered in New-Zealand yet, but they 

 occur in othcr countries which abound in ancestral forms, as Austi'alia 

 and the Western Coast of America (especially Chili and South 

 California). 



That the Lonchopteridae belong in the vicinity of the Dolichu- 

 podidae and Empidae will hardly be contested (compare again 

 Curtis, 1. c. under Lonchopiera, 1839; or still eaiüer, in bis Guide 

 etc. 1837). As to Phora. I cannot believe that it is well placed 

 aniong the Cyclorrhapha (where they are placed by Becher, Wien. 

 Ent. Z. 1882, p. 53). Its structural characters (head, legs, wings etc.) 

 and some of its motions, are not those of a fly. I have seen Pliorae 

 move up and down, with the legs kept together and stretched straight 

 down, as I have seen some IJybotidae and Rhyplius; but I have 

 never seen a mu sei form Dipteron do this. The metamorphose of 

 Phora, as described by Schnabl (Deutsche Ent. Z. 187f;, p. 217) 

 is more like that of the Orthorrliaplia, and this author observes 

 about the larva: „The tirst and second segments of its body seem to 

 be much more like those of the long-headed larvae, as represented 

 in Marno's schematic figure (Verh. Z. B. Ges. Vienna 1869), than like 

 those of the Cyclorrhapha." 24* 



