Dipterous Genns Xylomyia, Rond. 189 



the imagines, larvse, mode of pni)atioi), and nervous system 

 of the larvae) used by Osten Sacken in his paper of 1882, to 

 ^vhich reference has ah-eady been made, to divorce SuhaJu 

 from Xylopha(/uts and substantiate its inclusion among the 

 8trationiyitla3 (Beridina), especially as the paper in question 

 is w ritten in English. But it may be interesting to note that, 

 as pointi'd out by Osten Sacken himself, his conclusions (at 

 least so far as concerns /b^uhu/a) were antici|jated by Latreille 

 and Westwood. The latter, in the ' Introduction ' &c. vol.ii. 

 pp. 533-534, and in the appended " Synopsis of the Genera 

 of British Insects," p. 130, makes a family Beridae, to include 

 the genera iSubula, Beris, and Actina, and another — the 

 Coenomyida? — comprising Xykiphacjus and the non-British 

 genera Fachystomus [ = Xylopliayus) and Coenoviyia. West- 

 wood, however, erred in including his Coenomyidte among 

 the Notacantha. 



In 1891 Oaten Sacken formally merged his Xylophagidse 

 (i.e. Xylophagus + Coenomyta) in the Leptida?, the death- 

 warrant of the former family running as follows : — " The very 

 ])roblematic family of Xylophagidai must be given up, and 

 its contents, temporarily at least, united with the Leptidge " *. 

 Prior to this (in 1886 — Biol. Centr.-Am.) Osten Sacken had 

 placed tSuhula at the head of the family Stratiomyidaj ; and in 

 this connexion it may be remarked that the Beridina are 

 placed by Osten Sacken at the commencement of the Stratio- 

 myidffit instead of at the end, where they (Bering) are to be 

 found in Schiner's Catalogue as well as in Verrall's ' List,' 

 and in one of the recent catalogues by van der Wulp:f. The 

 position of Xylomyia at the commencement of the Stratio- 

 inyidai instead ot at the end is supported by a study of the 

 venation, which exhibits several noteworthy divergences from 

 the ordinary Stratiomyid type: it is sufficient to reier to the 

 shape of the discal cell, which is very different from that 

 which is a special cliaracteristic of the Stratiomyidte. 



'i he conclusion, therefore, at which we arrive is that 

 Xylomyia jepresents a primitive ancestral form of Stiatio- 

 niyid, given ofi' from the common stern after the evolution of 



* C. li. Oiten Sacken, '* Suggestions towards a better Grouping of 

 certain Families of the Order Diptera," Ent. Month. Mag. ser. 2, vol. ii. 



(ibtilj p. a«. 



t C'/. ' Catalogue of the Described Diptera of North America' [2nd ed,], 

 1878, p. 4;3. 



X \ . d. Wulp, ' Catalogue Described Dipt. S. Asia ' (1896), supra cit. 

 p. 5tS. In the recently published ' jSieuwe Naanilijst van Isederlandsche 

 Diptera, door 1"'. M. van der Wulp en Dr. J. C. 11. De Meijere. — Uitge- 

 geven duor de Nedi-rlaiidsche Entuniologische Vereeuij^iiig als liijvuegsel 

 tot deel xli. van het Tijdschrift voor Entouiologie ' ('S Giavenhage, 

 Martinus Mijhott, 1898), the first genus of the Strationiyidie is Bcrin. 



