190 Bibliographical Notices. 



the characteristic type of larva and mode of pupation, but 

 before the assumption on the part of the imago of the equally 

 characteristic features (venation, spurless tibiae *) exhibited 

 by the more specialized types of the family ; so that, in the 

 present state of our knowledge, the only logical place for the 

 genus is at the beginning of the Stratiomyidae t« 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 

 The Study of Man. By Alfred C. Haddon. 8vo. Pages xxxi 



and 512. 'With 49 Woodcuts and 8 Plates. Bliss and Co., 



London ; Putnam and Sons, New York. 1898. 

 This comprehensive work on Anthropology, descriptive and illus- 

 trated, is a good introduction to that science, by Professor Haddon, 

 D.Sc. &c, and is one of the " Progressive Science Series." The 

 several subject-matters are treated as far as possible in a popular 

 manner. 



* The anterior tibiae in Xylomyia are always devoid of the apical spurs, 

 with which the middle and posterior tibiae are normally armed ; in certain 

 exotic species, however, there appears to be a tendency towards the dis- 

 appearance of the spurs on the posterior tibiae also, for in a species (at 

 present undetermined) from Ceylon, collected and presented by Lt.-Col. 

 Yerbury, the spurs ou the hind tibia? are very small, while in Xylomyia 

 (Solva) hybotoides, Walk., from Gilolo, they are apparently absent 

 altogether. 



t Lest it should be thought that, after what had previously been 

 written by Osten Sacken and by Brauer, it was unnecessary to say any- 

 thing further as to the question of the true systematic position of the 

 genus Xylomyia, I may perhaps be permitted to point out that the con- 

 clusions of the authors in question appear to be ignored by recent writers 

 and catalogue-makers. Verrall, as already stated, in his ' List of British 

 Diptera' (1888), placed Xylomyia among the Xylophagidae, and his 

 example is followed by van der Wulp in the two recently published 

 catalogues of Diptera from South Asia and the Netherlands referred to 

 above. Lastly, Williston, in his ' Manual of the Families and Genera of 

 North American Diptera' (1896), p. 43, boldly places Xylomyia (the 

 extraordinary misprint Subula Omyia, which represents the genus on the 

 page referred to, is noted in the " Corrigenda " on p. iv, where Rondani's 

 designation is substituted) among the Leptidae, uniting it with the 

 American genera Glutops, Burgess, and Art/rroceras, Williston, to form 

 the subfamily Arthroceratinae. Unfortunately I cannot claim personal 

 acquaintance with either of these genera, but (as is evident from the 

 statements of their authors) they are so different from Xylomyia in 

 general habitus — not to mention the fact that in them the marginal vein 

 encompasses the entire border of the wing— that it is difficult to under- 

 stand how anyone could place Xylomyia in the same subfamily. Williston, 

 however, appears to think that in Xylomyia also the marginal vein runs 

 right round the wing (cf. ' Entomologica Americana,' vol. i. (1885-86) 

 p. 115), whereas as a matter of fact it stops short at the third vein, or at 

 any rate does not extend beyond the second vein which issues from the 

 discal cell. 



On the whole, therefore, it seemed worth while to utilize this oppor- 

 tunity for once more drawing attention to the facts : that a genus should 

 have been assigned to three families by contemporary writers is scarcely 

 creditable to the present condition of dipterology. 



