THE ANNALS 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



[NINTH SERIES.] 



No. 5. MAY 1918. 



XL. — Notes on Exotic Chloropidfe. — Part II. Oscininse. 

 By C. G. Lamb, M.A., B.Sc, Clare College, Cambridge. 



Oscininjs. 



This section of: the family, like the Chloropinpe, is very 

 indeterminate in generic relationships, and there are even 

 more cross-relationships than occur there. It will be noted 

 in what follows that increased spatial extension of several 

 genera is established, and further evidence of the remarkably 

 wide distribution of dipterous genera, even though appa- 

 rently of highly specialized types, is thus brought to 

 light. It is a point of considerable interest that this semi- 

 cosmopolitanism is possessed by the families and genera of 

 Diptera to a far greater extent than it is by the other chief 

 insect groups, though it unfortunately diminishes greatly 

 their usefulness in regard to questions of distribution. 



The genus Oscinis, Mcq., still remains to be adequately 

 dealt with, as has been observed previously by Becker, in 

 spite of having shed various mere or less well-marked 

 sections. This task cannot well be undertaken without a 

 very extensive collection of world-wide range, as the great 

 majority of the species are too briefly described, with the 

 omission of many minor characters of great systematic value, 

 and are in general unfigured. The colour-characters, so often 



Ann. & Mag. N, Hist. Ser. 0. Vol. i. 22 



