INTRODUCTION. 



The relative position of these veins, and the names which are 

 adopted in this work to distinguish them, will be readily understood 

 from the wood cut. 



Diagram of the wing of a dipterous insect : a, canal vein ; c a, anal cell ; p, postical 

 vein ; d, discoidal vein ; c, cubital vein ; r, radial vein ; s, subcostal vein ; m, 

 mediastinal vein. 



The dipterous fauna of New Zealand has as yet been so little 

 investigated that it would be useless to give synopses of the families. 

 Only ninety-five species have as yet been described, and of this num- 

 ber I expect that about six, introduced principally on the collections 

 made by the naturalists of the " Novara " expedition, do not really 

 belong to our fauna, but have had incorrect localities attached to 

 them : I must however leave this point to be settled by Auckland 

 naturalists, as all these species are reported from the neighbourhood 

 of Auckland. 



Many of our commonest flies have not yet been named, such as 

 the Phora, the Agromyza (?) and the Limnophora found so abundant 

 on our windows, and the Cmlopa which swarms on the decaying sea- 

 weed on the shore. The Chironomidce, the Mycetophilidce, the Cecido- 

 myidce, the Inflatce, the Empidce, and the (Estridfe are all repre- 

 sented in New Zealand, while none have yet been described, except 

 one species of Rhyphus. 



The following names were given by Mr. White to Diptera in the 

 " Voyage of the ' Erebus ' and ' Terror,' '' but no descriptions have 

 been published of them : — 



Limnobia gracilis. Tipula dux. 



„ chorica. „ clara. 



„ segrotans. „ obscuripennis. 



„ fumipennis. . Simulium ccecutiens. 



„ repanda. Rhyphus phaleratus. 



