

INTRODUGTION. 



i lie present paper is intended to form the first part of a work 

 on the Danish Diptera fauna. The Danish flies never have been the 

 object of any special work, reaching over the whoie order, and hence 

 \ve do not know what our country contains of this order; I therefore 

 think that a work on theni may be of some importance. 



As it may be of some interest to learn what eariier has been 

 published about Danish Diptera, and in order to show the standpoint, 

 on which our knowledge to the Danish fauna of this order stands, as 

 far as it has been publislied, I shall render a short account of the 

 eariier literature in which Danish Diptera are concerned. In this way 

 we get a view of the growth of the knowledge of our fauna during 

 the times. 



The earliest work known to nie, in which is referred what at 

 that time was known of Danish Diptera, is Ki'amer: Specimen Insectologiæ 

 Danicæ, 1760. In ^this work 31 species are enumerated, no new are 

 described. lu the foUowing year was published Briinniche : Prodromus 

 Insectologiæ Siællandicæ, 1761; it enumerates 70 species of Diptera, 

 of these one is described as new, but it is not named. The next 

 work is Pontoppidan: Den danske Atlas, 1763; the list of the insects 

 in this work is for the greatest part made by Briinniche, 91 species 

 of Diptera are enumerated, no new are described, but the new .species 

 mentioned above is here named ; the work is furnished with some 

 piates on which among others some Diptera are figured and among 

 these the new species mentioned {Musca c/ræca). We then come to 

 O. F. Muller, who published in 1764 his work: Fauna Insectorum 

 Fridrichsdalina. In this 133 species are recorded, and in 1767 in the 

 appendix to Flora Fridrichsdalina, entitled „Faunæ Fridrichsdaliiiæ 

 Novicia", 23 species are added; of these 156 species 34 are described 

 as new. Miiller's work: Zoologiæ Danicæ Prodromus, 1776, cannot 

 be drawn into consideration as it includes both Danish and Norwegian 

 species, and no localities are given. To the year 1767 thus 156 Danish 

 species of Diptera wcre known. With regard to all these species, 

 both the new and known, it holds good, that they cannot be identified, 



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