190 Bihliogrnphical Notices. 



the characteristic type of hirva and mode of pupation, but 

 before the assunijition on the j)art 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 Stratiornyidie f. 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 

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



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



Loudon ; Putnam and Sons, Kew York. 1898. 

 This coniprehensive work on Authropologj-, descriptive and illus- 

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

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

 several suliject-raatters are treated as far as possible in a popular 

 manner. 



• The anterior tibipe i)i Xylomyia are always devoid of tlie apical spurs, 

 with which the middle aud posterior tibiiTjare normally armed ; in certain 

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

 appearance of the spurs on the posterior tibire also, for iu a species (at 

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

 Yerbuvv, the spurs on tlie hind tibijB are very small, while in Xijlomyia 

 {Sulva) hi/botuides, Walk., from Gilolo, they are apparently absent 

 altofjether. 



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 

 o-enus Xi/lomyla, 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 X}lophagid«, and his 

 example is followed by van der AVulp iu the two recently published 

 cataloi^ues 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' (1^96), p. 43, boldly places Xylomyia (the 

 extraordinary misprint Suhula Omyia, which represents the genus on the 

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

 desif'-nation is substituted) among the Leptid.ie, uniting it with the 

 American genera Gliitops, Biu'gess, and Arf/iroceras, ^^'illistou, to form 

 the subfamily Arthroceratin.ie. Unfortunately I cannot claim personal 

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

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

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

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

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

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

 ri"lit round the wing ((/. ' Entomologica Americana,' vol. i. (18bo-86) 

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

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

 disual cell. 



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

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

 have'been assigned to three families by contemporary writers is scarcely 

 creditable to the present condition of dipterology. 



