170 



The iiiin (>r llic publication of llio IViiginent of u catalogue given 

 Ix'low, is to test the j^racticability of the new plan which I propose 

 to adopt. The princi])al portion of this fragiu'-nt is, perhaps more 

 than any other portion of the catalogue will he, the work of Mr. 

 Loew. Since the nionogra])h published hy him twenty-five years 

 ago in the Linnaea Entomologica, the Asilidae were his favorite 

 family. Among the Asilidae of North America, the Dusyporjo- 

 71171(1 attracted his especial attention, as the number of species 

 described and that of the new genera created, sufliciently proves. 

 For the list wliich I give below, Mr. Loew contributed the sequence 

 of the genera, the distribution of the si^ecies among the genera, 

 and many of the synonymies. My work has been to complete the 

 references, to suggest some synonymies, and to verify the whole, so 

 as to insure correctness and avoid omissions. Synonymies and ob- 

 servations given on the authority of Mr. Loew are marked [Lw.]. 

 In the same way synonymies given on the authority of other authors 

 are marked with their name. In cases of synonymy I have admitted 

 priority only when the earlier description was sufficiently distinct 

 to enable a reasonably certain identification. By a somewhat bold 

 interpretation of some of the older descriptions, I believed in some 

 cases to have identified some of the species published much later by 

 Mr. Loew. But it would be imprudent fully to adopt these synony- 

 mies, Avithout a careful comparison of the original specimens, some 

 of which, may be, are no longer in existence. 



Species unknown to Mr. Loew or to myself, have been referred to 

 the newly formed genera hypothetically, upon a careful perusal of 

 their descriptions. This applies especially to the Mexican species, 

 placed in the genus Diogmites. In such cases, errors may have 

 occurred, and some synonymies may have been overlooked. 



The comparison of the number of species contained in the old 

 and in the present catalogues, will give an idea of the progress made 

 since 1858. The old catalogue contained 43 Dasypogonina, dis- 

 tributed among 4 genera {Ceraturgus, Diodria, Dasypogon, Lepto- 

 gaster). The new list embraces 141 species and 28 genera (G8 spe- 

 cies from the Atlantic States, 18 from the Pacific, and 55 from the 

 tropical countries). As the fauna of the Atlantic States is, for us, 

 the object of a more immediate interest, I will state that among the 

 (58 species from this section of the country enumerated below, 58 



