crit. remarks ah. the third part of the Muse. Schizometopo. 381 



in Robineau's „Essai sur les Myodaires", 1830, in the introdnctory 

 chapter (p. 10), the foUowing passage occnrs: 



„La ptiline [ptilinuni, de .Tr//./ror]i) est une membrane tres 

 moUc qui, sur les jeiines sujets. et principalement dans quelques tribus, 

 sort entre les antennes et l'angle frontal. Souvent eile persiste apres 

 la mort. Susceptible de mouvements assez prompts, on la voit alter- 

 nativement sortir et rentrer sous les pieces du front, suivant la re- 

 spiration de Tanimal. Les especes sur (jui cette membrane se trouve 

 le plus developpee, m'engagent ä la regarder comme un organe 

 d"olfaction. Sa position ä la base menie des antennes, qui comniu- 

 niquent dans l'interieur de sa cavite, me confirme dans cette opinion. 

 II n'est pas non plus inutile de remarquer qu'elle est plus frequemment 

 exerte et plus etendue sur les femelles que sur les mäles." 



That the ptilinum, Brauer's „Stirnblase", is an organ of 

 olfaction remains to be proved; but what is iniportant for us to know 

 is that Robineau, as early as 1830, has recognized this organ as 

 a leading character of his Myodaires, a division which contains 

 the Museidae Calyptratae and Acalyptratae, and the Oestri- 

 dae.'^) In other words, the Myodaires correspond exactly to the 

 Museidae of Latreille (as Robineau himself acknowledges in 

 the Ann. Sog. Ent. 1846, p. 347) and to the Schizophora Becher- 

 Brauer (Z. K. M. III, p. 11, 1883), except that Brauer, erroneously 

 according to my opinion, added the Conopidae to them.-) The 

 „Bogennath" of Brauer (suture frontale) was also very well known 

 to Robineau; he calls it angle frontal, and mentions among the 

 characters of the Myodaires. These facts seem to have been entirely 

 unknown to Professor Brauer when, half a Century after Robineau, 

 he announced (in Z. K. M. I, p. 14, 1880), what he called the 

 new discovery („neue Thatsache") of the frontal suture, as 

 a distinguishing character between Orthorrhapha and Cyclor- 



i) Ptilinon, diminutive of ptilon, in greek down, meaning pro- 

 bably a pillow, stufFed with down. 



-') In Robineau's second work the Oestridae are coordinate, 

 not subordinate to the Myodaires. 



■'■) Robineau follows Latreille in separating the Conopidae 

 from tlie Museidae, But, misled by his idiosyncrasy of founding the 

 Classification on the habits of the larvae, he separates the Myopidae 

 (Myopa, Zodion, Dalmania) from the Conopidae. For some tirae 

 he was uncertain whcre to place his Myopidae (which formerly he 

 called Occemydae). In the Ann. Soc. Ent. Fr. 1846 (p. 350; also 

 p. 357) he contends that they must be placed among the Myodaires. 

 But in 1853 (Familie des Myopaires) he forms a separate family 

 for them. 



