DIPTERA 
FAM. EMPIDIDAE 
by Axel Leonard MELANDER, Sc. D. 
WITH 4 COLORED 
AND 4 MONOCHROME PLATES 
INTRODUCTION 
HE present study was inaugurated in 1i90oo at the suggestion of Dr. William 
M. Wheeler, who had been gathering together a collection of Empidida during the 
ten previous years. A paper on the Central American species was issued in 19or with 
Dr. Wheeler as joint author. The next year was published a monograph 
of the North American Empidida exclusive of the genus RAamfphomyia, and this has been 
followed by several short papers in the intervening time. A sojourn of twenty years near the Pacific 
Coast, where species of Empidide are particularly numerous, has enabled the writer to get together 
an extremely rich collection of this family, numbering many hundreds of species and many thousands 
ofspecimens. "This has been supplemented by specimens received from the following collectors, to 
whom, naturally, the warmest gratitude is due. Their liberality in furnishing specimens has made 
possible much of the following contribution. ; 
C. F. Adams, Atherton, Missouri; J. M. Aldrich, Washington, D. C.; C. F. Baker, 
Los Banos, Philippine Islands; Nathan Banks, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Germain Beaulieu, 
Montreal, Canada; William Beutenmueller, New York, N. Y.; J. Chester Bradley, Ithaca, 
New York; C. S. Brimley, Raleigh, North Carolina; Charles T. Brues, Boston, Massachusetts ; 
Gustav Chagnon, Montreal, Canada; T. D. A. Cockerell, Boulder, Colorado; F. R. Cole, 
Redlands, California; A. B. Cordley, Corvallis, Oregon; R. A. Cooley, Bozeman, Montana ; 
E. T. Cresson, Jr., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; C. R. Crosby, Ithaca, New York; W. Dietz, 
Hazleton, Pennsylvania; R. W. Doane, Stanford, California; Charles T. Greene, Washington, 
D. C.; H. S. Harbeck, Philadelphia. Pennsylvania; S. Henshaw, Cambridge, Massachusetts ; 
]. S. Hine, Columbus, Ohio; S. J. Hunter, Lawrence, Kansas; Eldred L. Jenne, deceased ; 
O. A. Johannsen, Ithaca, New York; Charles W. Johnson, Boston, Massachusetts; O. B. 
Johnson, deceased; Trevor Kincaid, Seattle, Washington; Frederick Knab, deceased ; 
