618 ENERGOPODA 



orders of insects; further notes are given upon these points under 

 the Dasypogonince on page 706. 



Aerangement. — For upwards of sixty years this family has been split 

 up into three subfamilies {Asilince, Laphrince, and Dasypogonince). These 

 three subfamilies may have been somewhat artificial but were at any rate 

 convenient and easily distinguishable, the Dasypogo7iince being known 

 from the other two through the open marginal cell, while the Laph- 

 rince had no style at the tip of the antennae but the Asilince had a 

 long terminal style or arista. In recent times another subfamily, the 

 Leptogastrince, has been indicated but on somewhat imcertain grounds ; 

 Schiner, who first mentioned it in 1868, hesitated whether to limit it to 

 the species which had the alulse absent (or obsolete) and the hind legs 

 thickened, or to those which had obsolete or abortive pulvilli, and Williston 

 in 1893 distinguished it on the character of possessing (in common with 

 the Asilince) only one-jointed palpi as against the two-jointed palpi of the 

 other two subfamilies ; I can hardly follow this latter arrangement because 

 I consider the Leptogastrince infinitely more closely related to the Dasypo- 

 gonince than to the Asilince, and the character founded on the number of joints 

 of the palpi (even if correctly distinguished) does not appear to be of much 

 value in the allied family of Mydaidm. In 1905 Hermann (Berlin, entom. 

 Zeit., L., 29) pointed out that the character of the open marginal cell is 

 not an infallible one for differentiating the Dasypogonince, as there are one 

 or two species in which that character may differ in even individuals, but 

 still for all practical purposes that character may remain if it be recognised 

 that there are a few Dasypogonince in which the radial vein curves up 

 and joins the costa at practically the same spot as the subcostal vein ends 

 and in so doing causes the end of the subcostal cell to be blunt instead 

 of pointed. The preceding family, Apioceridce, is evidently allied in vena- 

 tion to the Asilince through some species of Erax, and consequently it is only 

 natural that the sequence of Asilidce should commence with the Asilince 

 and with such genera as Erax, Promoxlius, Mallopliora, etc., and additional 

 confirmation is given to this arrangement through the circlet of spines which 

 occurs at the end of the female ovipositor in Thercvidce, some Mydaidce, and 

 such genera of the Asilince as Proctacanthus and Philonicus; other genera of 

 the Asilwice indicate relationship to the Laphrinm (with which they agree 

 in the closed marginal cell), and thence the gradation passes on from the 

 Laphrinoi through Lapliystia and those genera of Dasypogonince in which 

 the marginal cell is almost (or quite) closed. Some of the Dasypogoninoi 

 such as Microstyliim, Stcnopogon, etc., seem to show affinity to Asiliiice in 

 their chsetotaxy and in their large size, while the gradual diminution in 

 size accompanied with a shorter subcostal vein and a diminished chsetotaxy 

 with obsolescent or obsolete alulse leads on ultimately through Dioctria, etc., 

 to the Leptogastrince, in which the abortive alulae and almost entire absence 

 of bristles indicate the proximity of the Empidce. The nearest allies in 

 the Empidce should exist in the Hylotinm with their moderately long anal 



