2 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 5 1 



rial by this time, and Meigen's attention was naturally drawn to the 

 discovery of further characters that could be used in classification. 

 He was indorsed and followed by his contemporaries, Olivier, Fallen, 

 Say, Wiedemann, who adopted his genera without proposing new 

 ones, except that the last-named author erected the single genus 

 Glossina for the tse-tse flies. Dumeril erected the genus Bchiiwmyia, 

 and Le Peletier de Saint-Fargeau the single genus Prosena. Mei- 

 gen's best work was in genera. His descriptions of species were in 

 many cases faulty. On the whole, however, he is clearly to be looked 

 upon as an epoch-maker. 



The first really intuitive student of the superfamily was Robineau- 

 Desvoidy who. in 1830. introduced the third epoch and very greatly 

 increased the number of genera, besides defining more or less natural 

 taxonomic divisions for their reception. It must be understood that 

 very considerable accumulations of material from the Americas, both 

 North and South, had reached Europe during the early part of the 

 nineteenth century, besides much material from the African, Ori- 

 ental, and Australasian regions. To most of this Robineau-Desvoidy 

 had access. Notable among the accumulations were the rich collec- 

 tion of the Count Dejean, which had been added to constantly by 

 Latreille, and the quite extensive material secured from all parts by 

 the Museum of the Jardin du Roi in Paris. Palisot de Beauvois, 

 Saint-Hilaire, Bosc, and many others collected in the Americas, and 

 various representatives of the Jardin du Roi in other parts of the 

 world. Besides these, many European entomologists sprang up who 

 began to do much more thorough collecting at home. Thus a com- 

 paratively great wealth of material in the Muscoidea was brought 

 together from all parts of the world, both at home and abroad, which 

 stimulated Robineau-Desvoidy to a detailed study of characters in 

 this superfamily. His "Essai sur les Myodaires" remains to this 

 day a monument to his very considerable grasp of Muscoidean rela- 

 tionships. His posthumous work (1863) can not be considered as 

 affecting in any way the status of the "Essai." 



Macquart, almost contemporaneous with Robineau-Desvoidy, but 

 possessed of less discernment, bunched the latter's genera to a very 

 considerable extent. However, it must be pointed out in defense of 

 Macquart that he was eminently a general dipterist, while Robineau- 

 Desvoidy was preeminently a specialist in the Myodaria. 



Zetterstedt erected only two genera in the superfamily, and prac- 

 tically employed Meigen's genera for all of his work. Perty, Bouche, 

 Guerin, and Bremi each erected a single genus in the superfamily. 



Robineau-Desvoidy's system, founded largely on habits, was in a 

 degree faulty and insecure. Attention should be called to the fact, 



