I. CATALOGUE OF ORIENTAL AND SOUTH 

 ASIATIC NEMO CERA. 



By E. Brt'netti. 



Introduction. 



Van Der Wulp's "Catalogue of the Diptera of South Asia" 

 (i8q6) has been the onh- one available since its publication, and 

 the want of a more up-to-date work has probably' been felt by all 

 workers in this somewhat neglected order of insects. The present 

 effort is, so far as the first suliorder goes, an endeavour to fill the 

 breach pro tempore, for the study of oriental diptera is verj' obvi- 

 ously still in its infancy. 



The arrangement of families and subfamilies is the one that 

 appears to me most natural, and the nomenclature adopted is that 

 which has, with few exceptions, been used by the leading diptero- 

 logists of the past three quarters of a century. The opportunity 

 may here be taken to state my unshakeable adherence to both the 

 present classification and nomenclature. The continual shuffling 

 of names under the guise of priority is a wholly imnecessary 

 handicap to effective study, and the only way to establish finality 

 is to retain the nomenclature which has been found satisfactory 

 by practically all the greatest writers on diptera. Osten Sacken 

 and Verrall ojienly confessed to " continuity before priority ' ' and 

 I cannot but whole-heartedly agree with them in the l)est interests 

 of the science itself. 



As has been pointed out by others besides myself, Meigen's 

 paper of 1800 (which has been the chief cause of the suggested 

 general overturning of the principal generic and family names 

 throughout the order by the strict priorist) was not binomial, no 

 species being given as representative of the genera described. This 

 fact, therefore, in itself entirely invalidates its acceptance under 

 the customary laws of zoological literature, and the ado])tion of 

 the names contained in it seems to suggest merely r. morbid crav- 

 ing for continual change. 



It is not out of place to recall X'erraU's view that it is incum- 

 bent upon us to accept the methods of the writers of old and the 

 etiquette of their times. Meigen's " 1800 jiaper " as it has been 

 called was wholly preparatory ; the author himself almost entirely 

 ignored it in his later works, and his right to rename his genera 

 was never (juestioned by his confreres at the time he wrote. 



My own fixed policy is to retain the nomenclature as em- 

 liloyed bv the principal authors of the last century, Schiner, Locw 

 Meigen, Macquart, Walker, Osten Sacken, Verrall and their con- 

 temporaries, and family and subfamily names should be held in- 



