8 DIPTERA OF NORTH AMERICA. [EART III. 



that of the Ortalidse, and not like that of the Sepsidse. Cepha- 

 lia is more closely related to the above-named species of Ortalis 

 than Psairoptera. 



4. Forms not resembling any of Meigen's species. 



A fly which possesses all the essential characters of the species 

 of Ortalis, and undoubtedly belongs to the Ortalidse, is the 

 Scatophaga fasciata of Fabricius, erroneously placed by Meigeu 

 in the genus Trypeta. The Musca octopunctata of Coquebert, 

 Dec. III., Tab. XXIV., is probably identical with it. The cir- 

 cumstance that there is no other European Ortalida resembling 

 this species probably caused Meigen to overlook its true rela- 

 tionship. Similar forms are more frequent in other parts of the 

 world, especially in America. Among them I will name Dictya 

 ocellata Fabr., Ortalis vau Say, and Platystoma annulipes 

 Macq., which, by the way, is no Platystoma at all. 



Aciphorea not belonging to the ORTALIDSE. 



That group of genera which, on account of its peculiar, three- 

 jointed, horny ovipositor, ending in a simple point, has been called, 

 and not improperly, Diptera aciphorea, is represented in Europe, 

 besides the Trypetidse and those genera which, on the preceding 

 pages, I have claimed for the Ortalidse, only by Lonchsea, with 

 the genus Earomyia, separated from it by Zetterstedt, and by 

 Palloptera and Toxoneura. As it would be useless to look for 

 Ortalidse outside of the Diptera aciphorea, it remains for us at 

 present to define the position of those genera with regard to the 

 Ortalidse. 



The number and position of the frontal bristles, the distinct- 

 ness of the clypeus, the absence of vibrisss, and the want of 

 the characteristic bristle on the upper side of the tibia, before 

 its end, which is distinctive of several families, the spurred middle 

 tibia, the spurless front and hind tibiae, as well as the com- 

 pleteness of the venation, clearly prove the close relationship of 

 these genera with Ortalis. They are less closely allied to the 

 Trypetidse, from which they differ in the arrangement of the 

 frontal bristles and in the course of the auxiliary vein. All four 

 differ from all the genera, the location of which among the Orta- 

 lidse I have proved in the preceding discussion, by a much 

 smaller size of the two posterior, usually called small, basal cells 



