VI. REVIvSION OF THE ORIENTAL S T R A- 

 TIOMYIDM, WITH XYLOMYIA AND 

 ITS ALLIES. 



By E. Brunetti. 



Fof some time I have been studying the Stratiomyidce of the 

 Oriental Region and the neighbouring parts of the Austrahan, 

 partly for the purpose of revising the Indian Museum Collection in 

 this group, and partly to enable me to identify my own captures 

 during the last two years in India and other parts of the East, and 

 the notes accumulated seem to be worth recording. 



I intended including as Stratiomyidce those genera which, 

 under the older system of classification, would be placed in Xylo- 

 phagidcB ; but this would differ from the latest authorities, as in 

 the elaborate new Catalogue of Palsearctic Diptera by Kertesz, 

 Becker, Bezzi and Stein this latter group is still retained as a 

 separate family. Some authors have disbanded it, relegating species 

 of the Xylomyia [Subula) group to the Stratiomyidce , and the re- 

 mainder {Xylophagus group) to the LeptidcB, with which they un- 

 doubtedly have strong affinities. Xylomyia approximates to Beris 

 in many respects. Baron Osten Sacken noted this in 1882 in his 

 critical remarks on Dr. Brauer's paper on the characteristics of the 

 genera of the Notacantha, and he objected (to use his own words) 

 to " the juxtaposition of Subula and Xylophagus in the same ulti- 

 mate subdivision." 



By structural characters, and by their metamorphoses, Xyl- 

 omyia {Subula is preoccupied by Schummell in Mollusca, 1817) is 

 much more related to the Stratiomyidce than to Xylophagus , which 

 latter genus is distinctly related to the Leptidce and, in a less degree, 

 to the Tabanidce also. 



In Aldrich's recent Catalogue of North American Diptera 

 XylophagidcB ^ as a family, is sunk bodily in Leptidce, and Ccenomyia 

 with its allies added also. My own hesitation has been parti}- due 

 to the costal vein in these genera being continued all round the edge 

 of the wing, as in most other Brachycera, instead of terminating 

 suddenly at the tip of the wing or just beyond it, which latter 

 characteristic is peculiar to the Stratiomyidce : also partly, to the 

 variation from the typical venation, a character in which the 

 Stratiomyidce are strikingly consistent. Without expressing any 

 definite opinion, having only casually studied the question of 



