No. XIV.— DIPTERA, TIPULID^. 



By F. W. Edwards, B.A. (Cantab.), F.E.S. 

 (Contributed by permission of the Trustees of the British Museum.) 



(Plates 10 and 11.) 

 (Communicated by Prof. J. Stanley Gardiner, M.A., F.KS., F.L.S.) 



Read 1st February 1912. 



The collections here described comprise 24 or 25 species taken in the Seychelles 

 by Mr Hugh Scott, together with 3 collected by Mr J. C. F. Fryer in Aldabra. Those 

 taken in the Seychelles were practically all obtained in the high endemic mountain 

 forests, which will account for the very large proportion of new species. One would, 

 however, naturally expect the Tipulid Fauna of the Seychelles to be of considerable 

 interest, more particularly as no member of the family has until now been recoi-ded 

 as occurring in those islands. Such expectations have been fully realised, for of the 

 27 species described in the sequel no less than 23 appear to be new to science. 



Taken together, the membership in the different groups is as follows : 

 LiMNOBIINI 10 (11 ?). 



Rhamphidiini 8. 

 Eriopterini 5. 

 Anisomerini 4. 



It will be seen at once from the above that the Limnophilini and the Tipulidae 

 longipalpi are quite unrepresented. This is remarkable, as Limiwphila, Tipula, and 

 Pachyrvhina are usually well represented in the tropics. The common tropical genus 

 Eriocera too is badly represented, and the two species here assigned to it approximate 

 to Penthoptera in size and in their somewhat pubescent wings; it may be that the 

 genus Penthoptera will have to be given up. Penthoptera only differs from Eriocera 

 in that its members have hairy wings, and the two Seychelles species seem to be 

 intermediate, since the wings ai'e only slightly hairy at the tip. They are smaller than 

 most of the species of Eriocera. Apart from these rather surprising negative characters, 

 the fauna shows some interesting features. Thaumastoptera aldahrensis, if coiTectly 

 placed, is the second species of the genus, the other being European ; Anisomera had 

 only been recorded from Europe and America ; Thrypticomyia and Tasiocera only from 



