1914] Muscoid and Anthomyioid Flies. 161 
Glossina, all their immediate allies, and quite probably a 
block of forms hitherto classed as Anthomyiide. The position 
of Calliphora has never been questioned, but the other forms 
are more or less connectant between Calliphora and Anthomyia, 
and the affinities of Musca have long been confused with those 
of the truly connectant forms. We are thus practically in 
the rather paradoxical position of being unable to place taxo- 
nomically the type of the superfamily Muscoidea, which seems 
_ inclined to fall in the Anthomyioidea. 
If Musca prove to be more nearly related to Anthomyia than 
to Calliphora, then one of two things must result. Either 
the Muscoidea in the writer’s sense must extend itself to 
include all the anthomyioid flies; or the latter must be grouped 
with Musca and the connectant forms into a totally different 
superfamily to be known as the Muscoidea, thus completely 
changing the sense of the name and leaving the Calliphorine and 
higher groups to form a superfamily by themselves. It is there- 
fore evident that a pressing necessity exists for fixing definitely 
the status of Musca with relation to the connectant forms 
that intervene between Anthomyia and Calliphora. 
Certain students, not caring to proceed farther, will adopt 
the former solution of the difficulty and thus dismiss the whole 
subject. But this is not the correct solution, for it obscures 
the real affinities of the two groups. The anthomyioid flies, 
as a whole, present a far greater contrast with the rest of the 
Schizometopa, which is to say Muscoidea, than do the various 
groups of the latter with each other. Moreover, there are 
at least two family types— Coenosia and Anthomyia—repre- 
sented in the Anthomyioidea, and it is a question whether 
Drymeia does not constitute a third and Fannia a fourth. 
Nor can we reduce the value of the taxonomic groups one 
notch, thereby considering the whole Schizometopa as one 
superfamily, for such action would only compel the inauguration 
of a new category farther down the line in order to preserve a 
proper conception of relationships. The anthomyioid flies 
constitute a superfamily of the atypic class, which is to say 
that they occupy a position entirely outside the proper limits 
of the superfamilies Muscoidea and Borboroidea (Holometopa 
excl. Conopidez), but intermediate between the two. As 
such they claim separate recognition. 
