44 BRITISH FLIES 



Katalog of 1903) formed a convenient recei^tacle for any Stratiomyid o: 

 with spurred tibia; and a commencement of an ambient vein together 

 with any LcptirJcr. which have an annulated third antennal joint ; but 1 

 have followed Osten Sacken in dismembering and submeroins; the familv. 

 The Cainoimjidm (with spurred tibiic, annulated flagellum, aml^ient vein, 

 and armed scutellum) are now known to be rather closely allied to the 

 Xylophagina: and are therefore treated as a subfamily of the Le]itirl(r. ; they 

 had however been previously united by Westwood mider his interpreta- 

 tion of the Camomyida:. Westwood also formed a family called Beridcv 

 for the Xylomyina: and Berinm combined. The Chiromyzidm comprise a 

 few South and Central American species which have been bandied about 

 between the Stratiomyid w and Ccenomyida^ but which according to the 

 origin of the prtefurca must be allied to the Berino: and consequently 

 l»elong to the Htratiomyidoi. The Anthracidm have long since been 

 universally recognised as a subfamily {Anthracincc) of the Bombylidrr. 



A paper entitled " Notes pour la Classification des Dipteres," published 

 by Aug. Lameere in Memoires de la Societc entomologique de Belgique, xii. 

 (1906), exhibits a most extraordinary lack of knowledge of Diptera in 

 general. To begin with, the author seems to have had an idea that Osten 

 Sacken divided the Diptera into only Nemocera and Brachyceka, thus 

 completely failing to comprehend Osten Sacken's idea of the Braghycera ; 

 then he endeavours to separate Osten Sacken's Nemocera Anomala from 

 the Nemocera altogether, and to associate them with the Braghycera. 

 Throughout the paper the author exhibits such an absolute want of personal 

 study of the Diptera and of their literature as to render his writings 

 worse than useless for students. 



DEVELOPMENT OP CHARACTERS. 



It is very interesting to observe the gradual development of numerous 

 characters leading from the Nemocera to the Braghycera, and then to 

 trace those characters through the various families of the Braghycera on 

 to the Athericera. 



Venation. — The anal cell is always wide open in the Nemocera, and 

 although it has a tendency in the Bhyphidce to contract about its middle 

 it widens out again towards the wingmargin, and in conjunction with this 

 character the Bliyphidcc bear a general superficial resemblance to some of 

 the Lc})tidc€, and further still the BJiypliidcv belong to the few Nemocera 

 which possess a discal cell, so that in many ways they indicate the change 

 towards the Braghycera. In the Braghycera, on the other hand, the 

 postical vein begins by forking in a rather gradual fashion, so that its 

 lower branch approximates to or even joins the anal vein near the wing- 

 margin, and then the anal cell is either strongly contracted or even closed, 

 and in some cases (Beris, etc.) the lower branch of the postical vein curves 

 down so abruptly that the anal cell is closed some considerable distance 

 before the wingmargin ; moreover, in all the earlier families of the Brachy- 



