86 E. Brunetti : The Oriental Stratiomyida. [VOL. I, 



affinities, it seems to me that Xylomyia and its allies would be best 

 placed with Ccenomyidce, the family name of the latter retained, 

 and the group placed next to the Stratiomyidce, followed by the 

 AcanthomeHdcB as a family, followed again by the Tahanidce and 

 Leptidce (including Xylophagus and its allies). 



However, so far as this paper is concerned, I retain Xylomyia 

 and the allied genera as a separate group. 



The material in the Indian Museum in this family is not abun- 

 dant in either species or specimens, and my own labours have 

 only resulted in a limited number of both. For this reason it is to 

 be regretted the more that a personal reference to Walker's types 

 in the British Museum has been impossible, since about half the 

 species in the family are his. Baron Osten Sacken's view to the 

 effect that writings on the fauna of a region imperfectly known 

 should be considered as preparatory and not final results seems 

 correct, and his opinion that a writer is not " called upon to des- 

 cribe as new every specimen that he cannot identify " is echoed by 

 my own. Therefore I am not sure whether analytical tables of 

 genera and species should have been presented, for owing to my 

 inability to obtain specimens of the majority of the species, the 

 tables have had to be drawn up mainly from descriptions, and will 

 be open to improvement on a better personal acquaintance with 

 a larger proportion of the species. 



Group Xyi^omyin^. 



Tabic of genera. 



3rd and 4th externo-medial veins not united Xylomyia Rond. 

 3rd and 4th externo-medial veins united 

 just before the border of the wing. 

 Thorax elongo-quadrate, discal cell 3 



times as long as broad . . Rhachicerus Wlk. 



Thorax much longer than broad, 

 discal cell 4 times as long as 

 broad . . . . . . Rhyphomorpha Wlk. 



Xylomyia Rond,, 1861. 



Subula Mg., 1820; Sys. Besch., ii, 15. 

 (Preoccupied by Schummell in Mollusca, 1817.) 

 Solva Wlk., i860, Proc. Linn. So., Lond., iv, 98. 



Osten Sacken, in 1880, in his " Enumeration of the Diptera of 

 the Malay Archipelago," says, " There is no necessity for a new 

 genus Solva Wlk. ; it is simply a Subula closely resembling in 

 structure and colouring the European and North American species"; 

 and as he has examined Walker's type in the British Museum_, 

 the identity may be held proved. 



