1906] 
WILLISTOX— DIPTEROUS WING 
157 
among many of the Stratiomyidae, where the second vein confessedly has assumed 
the position of a tjrancli of the third. 
It is perhaps rather a bold opinion, but I am, nevertheless, inclined to it, that the 
Phoridae are really members of the Xemocera. The venation of the family is quite 
identical with that of Asplstcs of the Bibionidae, for instance, and is easily e.xplainable 
on this assum])tion, but utterly impossible from any other. The fact that the Phoridae 
have two-jointed palpi, while all the Cyclorrha])ha have but a single joint, eliminates 
them 1 believe absolutely from membershi[) in that grou]). The only diptera, aside 
from certain Nemoccra, having two-jointed ptdjti, .so far as my observation and 
reading go, are the Leptidae, Stratiomyidae, Tabanidac, Pantophthalmidae, Bomby- 
liidae, some Asilidae, .\])iocera and the Phoridae. I am not sure about the Empi- 
didae. The phorid antennae do not seem to me to offer insuperable objections to 
the location of the family among the Xemocera. So far as I atn aware the first 
antennal joint in these flies is supposed to be absolutely wanting, the second much 
reduced in size. A.ssuming that the so-called third joint is in reality the second 
joint, it does not rctpnre much imagination to conceive that the, at least three-jointed, 
arista is in reality the whole flagellum of the Xemocera. And we have the Orph- 
nephilidae to helj) us out in this assumption, where practically the only difference 
is that of additional aristal joints. Schiner seems to have had the same idea in his 
association of the Phoridae ne.xt to the Bibionidae in his Fauna Austriaca. On the 
other hand it is a well-known fact that the most primitive antennae of all diptera, 
so far as the number of distinct joints is concerned, with a few exceptions only among 
the Cecidomyidae, are found in the Brachycera, not the Xemocera! I may add by 
way of postscript, that Theobald’s interpretation of the Culicid venation in his mono- 
graph is incorrect, and betrays a limited knowledge of the venation of allied diptera. 
