Lonchopteridae. 3 



wards and backwards to the second basal cell; the basal cells and 

 the anal cell are short ; no discai cell. There is no wing stigma. The 

 venation is further remarkable by the faet, that most of the veins are 

 convex; the mediastinal is concave as normal, likewise the subcostal 

 vein convex, the radial vein concave and the cubital vein convex; the 

 largest basal part of the stem of the discai fork and the inner two 

 thirds of its upper branch are concave, the outer part of this branch, 

 and the lower branch convex; the postical vein convex, and the so- 

 called anal vein likewise convex, but this latter has a concave part 

 at the base; still there is the remarkable faet that all the convex 

 veins or parts of veins are spinulose. 



The wing-venation of the Lonchopterids has been somewhat 

 debated ; Brauer has not entered into it in his work over the wings 

 of Diptera; Adolph does not say much about it; Redtenbacher takes 

 the discai vein to be his vein V, but he mentions it and has figured 

 it as quite convex which is not correct. I think the best interpreta- 

 tion is the one given by de Meijere in his monograph cited below; this 

 author thinks that the vein bordering the discai cell above from the 

 medial cross-vein to the base of the fork is obliterated, and he refers 

 to Pipunculus omissinervis Beck., where the facts are similar; the lower 

 anterior part of the oblique medial cross-vein he takes as the base of 

 the discai vein, the upper part being the real cross-vein; if this is so 

 we get a venation somewhat similar to that in several Empids, and 

 also in Platypeza, and with a normal discai cell partly bounded below 

 by the postical vein. De Meijere lays no stress on the convexity or 

 concavity of the veins, but I think the convex end branches of the 

 discai vein may be consldered as remnants • of the vein V. The vein 

 which above and in the descriptions is termed the anal vein, is as 

 said convex; de Meijere thinks it nevertheless to be the anal vein, 

 but I think, like Adolph, that it is the axillary vein; perhaps its con- 

 cave basal part belongs to the anal vein; it must be remembered, 

 that the so-called anal vein in the Dolichopodids is probably also the 

 axillary vein. 



The squamulæ are very small, the thoracai squamula only present 

 as frenulum. 



The larvæ are of a curious appearance ; they are elongated ellipti- 

 cal, flat, only a little arched above, and here a little carinate along 

 the middle line; the segments are well chitinized above and brown, 

 and they look as if each was covered by a shield, The number of 

 segments can be counted as ten, the head taken as one segment; but 

 the metathorax is long and probably formed of this and the tirst ab- 

 dominal segment, and the last segment is perhaps also formed of two ; 



