about the ihird pari of tlte Musenria Schizometopa. 383 



with the Syrphidae and of tlie Conopidae with the Myoduires 

 of Robineau! 



T will not enter into any further considerations, bnt shall add a 

 fcw words about that unrecognized genius, Robineau-Desvoidy. 



Jean Baptiste Robineau-Desvoidy was born Jan. 1 1799 

 in St. Sauveur en Puisaye, a little town south-west of Auxerrc (De- 

 partment of the Yonne). He studied in Anxerre and in Paris, ob- 

 trtincd his doctorate in 1822, and since then spent his life in his 

 native place dividing his tinie between his medical duties and his 

 favorite scientific pursuits. The district in which he lived was nn- 

 attractive, marshy and unhealthy, with poor and sickly inhabitants. 

 Having inherited a sufficient competence („assez comfortable inde- 

 pendance") he never attempted to increase it. He built a villa (which 

 he called „Herniitage") in a cold and damp valley near S. Sauveur 

 and there he lived in isolation. With great disinterestednes, he per- 

 forined the daily task of visiting his numerous patients („il ne savait 

 pas ce que c'etait de reclamer des honoraires"), and in this respect 

 bis biographer renders him an aniple justice („une eclatante justice"). 

 His health iinally gave way undcr the deleterious influence of the 

 climate, and after prolonged suiferings, a short time before his death, 

 he was removed to a private hospital in Paris, whcre he died in 18ö7 

 in his 59 i? year. The lovc and admiration he inspired to the small 

 circle of his friends found an eloquent expression in the niemorial 

 Speech pronounced by Dr. Du che during the meeting of the French 

 Scientific Association in Auxerre in 1858. This speech is prefixed 

 to his posthumous work: Dipteres des Environs de Paris, 2 voll. 1863, 

 and froni it I borrow niy data. The publication of this posthumous 

 work was another act of fricndly devotion to his memory. Mr. Mon- 

 ceaux, Secretary of a scicntitic society in Auxerre, an entomologist, 

 but by no means a Dipterist, undertook the onerous and ungrateful 

 task of Publishing the manuscript Icft by Robineau. It cost him 

 several years not only of editorial labor, but also of negociations to 

 overcome the Opposition against this publication, and to obtain the 

 means for carrying it out. 



„(PhoraJ scheint mit den Borborinen verwandt zu sein, doch haben 

 „die Larven viele Beziehungen zu den Ephydrinen. Andrerseits Hessen 

 „sich die Phoriden auch noch mit den Plafypeziden vergleichen?" 

 But is Prof. Brauer so very sure that Phoridae belong to the Cy- 

 clorrhapha? Is there not something to investigate about them, just 

 as much as about the somewhat enigmatic LonchoptcridaeV The 

 line between Cyclorrhapha and Orthorrhapha does not seem, for 

 tliose genera, to be very distinctiy drawn. 



