204 [September 



THE POSITION OF PHORA IN THE SYSTEM OF DIPTERA. 

 BY C. R. OSTEN SACKEN, Ph.D., Hon. F.E.S. 



In Latreifle's " Precis," 179(3, where the generic name Phora 

 appears for the first time, the genus is placed at haphazard in the 

 following series: — Anthrax, Lispe, Phora., Musca, &c. 



Meigen, in Illiger's Magazin, 1803, p. 27b' (which contains an 

 enumeration of generic names, rather than a deliberate classification), 

 has Phora under the name of Trineura. In the "Classification" 

 (181)4) Trineura is placed at the very end of the Order (p. 312), with 

 the remark, "Sonderbare Geschopfe," which proves that Meigen did 

 not know what to make of them. In the " Syst. Beschr.," vi, p. 210 

 (1830), Meigen recognises the priority of the generic name Phora, 

 Latr., although he retains the name Trineurae for the Family. He 

 places it again at the end of his System, before the Goriacece. Ever 

 since Phora, by the mere force of routine, has retained the same posi- 

 tion, always in the vicinity of Borborus (with which it has absolutely 

 nothing to do), and always at the end of the Cj/clorrhapha. The 

 latest excellent Monograph of the Phoridce by Mr. Th. Becker 

 (Vienna, 1901) leaves the question of their position undecided.* 



For many years I have been collecting facts about the metamor- 

 phosis of Phoridce in the existing literature, without ever having had 

 the opportunity of observing it myself. But the facts thus obtained 

 are sufficient to confirm me in the belief that the place of Phora is 

 among the Orthorrhapha, and not among the CijcJorrhapha. 



The best description of the transformations of Phora is that of 

 Dr. J. Schnabl (Deutsche Ent. Z., 187G, pp. 217-220, with figures). 

 The figure of the larva (Tab. I, figs. 1, 2) has a merely superficial 

 resemblance to the larva of the Cyclorrhapha. Dr. .Schnabl says 

 (p. 217), "Its first and second segments appeared to me much more 

 like the schematic figure of Marno's (Verb. z.-b. Ges. Wien, 1869, 

 p. 325) ' long headed larvae,' than like that of the Cyclorrhaphous 

 Dipteral AVhat Dr. Schnabl has about the pupu (in the letter-press 

 as well as in the figures), reminds me slill less of a Gi/clorrhaphous 

 pupa, especially the pair of divergent spinules anteriorly, and the 



* Brauer's successive opinions about Phora arc, as usual with him, characterized by their 

 arbitrariness, inconsistency and inconclusiveness. In 1880 (Zweifl. d. Kais. Mus. Wien, i, pp. 

 14-119, below) be says, " Die Grnppc Hypocera {Phora) scbemt rnit den Borborinen ('. !, verwandt 

 zu sein, dock haben die Larven viele Beziehungen zu den Ephydrinen ('.). Andcrerscits liesseu 

 sicb die Phoriden noch niit den Platypeziden ['.) vergleichen." in \%s'i (I.e. iii, pp. 11 and 32) be 

 follows up tbis idea and connects the Phorida through the Platypezida and fipunculida with 

 the Syrphidce (!!). (These data have already been referred to by me in the Berl. Ent. £., 18W3, 

 p. 382). The otherwise excellent entomologist, Eduard Becher, must have been misled by 

 Brauer's exaggerated notions about the frontal suture, when he introduced the most unnatural 

 group Bypocera, consisting of the two genera Phora and Platypeza in juxtaposition (Wien. lint. 

 Z., 1882, pp. l'J-54). 



