3. ATHERIX 285 



1. The name Atherix probably first appeared in Meigen's paper in Illiger's 

 Magazin fur Insectenkunde, ii., 271 (1803), under the following description : — 



"64. Athepjx. Die Fiihlhui-ner vorgestrekkt, herunter gedriikkt, dreigliederig : 

 " die beiden letzten Glieder etwas flach, rundlicht ; das letzte auf der obern Seite 

 " mit einer aufwarts gekriimmten Borste. — Die Fliigel halb often. Rhagio diadema 

 " et cinctus Fair J' 



At first glance this would appear to make Rhagio diadema Fabr. the type of the 

 genus, especially as R. cinctus Fabr. belongs to the Nemocera ! A closer study 

 of Meigen's paper shows an introduction written by Illiger himself, which states 

 '' Dieses ist der Vorlitufer eines Werks liber die europiiischen Zweifliigler, das der 

 " Verfasser schon ausgearbeitet und mit den vortreflichsten Zeichnungen der 

 " Gattungsmerkmale ausgestattet hat.'' I take the word "Vorlaufer" to mean 

 "Precursor," and consequently not to mean the "Work" itself, and it is notice- 

 able that Meigen in all his subsequent writings scarcely ever made the slightest 

 reference to this " Vorliiufer " ; in fact he ignored it almost as completely as he 

 always ignored his Nouvelle classification des Mouches a deux ailes (1800). The 

 two works may be taken as two of his progeny who died from premature 

 birth. 



If however the rigid prioi'ity-monger would try to assert the supposed legitimate 

 rights of Rhagio diadema to stand as the type species of Atherix instead of the 

 commonly accepted A. Ibis, a close examination of dates will I think prevent his 

 establishing his case. Ordinarily the dates on the title-page of Illiger's Magazin 

 (1803) and on the title-page of Meigen's Klassifikazion (1804) have been accepted 

 without question, but an examination of Illiger's " Zweiter Band " shows on page 

 285 that it contains reviews of works published in 1803, and consequently it could 

 not have been published itself until very late in 1803 or more likely in 1804, while 

 an examination of Meigen's Klassifikazion, page iiiv. (misprint for viii.), shows that 

 the " Erster Band," as distinguished from " Zweite Band " (which never appeared), 

 left Meigen's hands on " 17. Mai 1803." The actual date of its publication is unknown 

 to me, but I am obliged to admit, as telling against my contention, that in my 

 bound copy of Meigen's Klassifikazion there is a leaflet between page 314 and the 

 Plates, on which a book publisher's (Carl Reichard) list of works is given, and some 

 of these, including Illiger's JMagazin " 3r Bd. 1 Thlr.," were undoubtedly published 

 in or before 1804, but this only proves the date of the binding. 



2. In (probably) 1804 Meigen fully described and figured his genus Atherix in 

 his Klassifikazion, p. 293, Tab. xiv., fig. 26-31. He described two species 1. Ath. 

 macidatus and 2. Ath. immacidatus, of which the first may well be considered the 

 type, especially as he gave it primary place in his Syst. Beschr., ii., 104 (1820), under 

 the older name of A. Ibis. We may therefore accept the original Rhagio Ibis 

 of Fabricius as the type of Meigen's genus Atherix ; his second species ^. immaculatus 

 has since been distinguished generically by the single spur on the hind tibial and the 

 open anal cell and is now placed in the genus Symjihoromyia. Meigen quite 

 ignored the genus Atherix of Illiger's Magazin, and transferred one of its supposed 

 species to the Nemocera while he suppressed the other one into Rhagio ( = Leptis). 



3. In 1805 Fabricius adopted the generic name Atherix and included ten species 

 under it. He however used the name in quite a difterent sense from Meigen, and his 

 species were mainly those which we now place in the genus Chrysopilus, though he 

 left Meigen's A. immaculata as his last species. A. Ibis was left in his genus Leptis 

 (substituted for Rhagio) of which L. scoJopacea is the type. 



4. In 1820 Meigen enumerated twelve species in his genus Atherix, of which 

 however four were unknown to him. He stated that the genus was allied to Leptis, 

 especially his section B. (now forming the genus Chrysopilus), but that the main 

 characters lay in the difterent shape of the third antennal joint and in the down- 

 ward bent palpi. The eight speeies known to him fully agree with these characters 

 and represent two species of Atherix, one of Atrichojis, and several of probably 

 Symphoromyia. It must be borne in mind that up to this date only two genera 

 of European Leptidce were recognised, so that what was not Leptis was Atherix. 



5. The dismemberment of Atherix Meig. began in 1856 when Rondani proposed a 

 genus Ibisiatov '' Bibio marcjinata Fabr.," and Atherix for ''Atherix pilosa Meig." 

 Ribio marginata F. is now known as Atherix marginata F. and is almost certainly 

 congeneric with Atherix Ibis, and consequently Ronda.ni's genus Ibisia may be con- 

 sidered to be an absolute synonym of Atherix Meig. As to Rondani 's genus. Atherix, 



