TAXONOMY OF MUSCOIDEAN FLIES — TOWNSEND 7 



Corti, 1895-1897. 

 * Austen, 1895 + 

 *Coquillett, 1895 + 

 ♦Hough, 1898 + 



Kertesz, 1899 + 



Robertson, 1901 + 

 *Bischof, 1901 + 

 *Grimshaw, 1901 + 

 ♦Hendel, 1901 + 

 ♦Hutton, 1901 + 



Villeneuve, 1902 + 



Wainwright, 1902 + 

 *Speiser, 1903 + 

 ♦Johnson, 1903 + 



Treatment 



Speaking of the Muscoidea, Dr. Williston has said: "Species, 

 genera, and even families, show such slight plastic or colorational 

 differences that only the most patient study will define their limits. 

 At the present time there is a decided tendency to base the classifica- 

 tion of even the higher groups upon apparently trivial characters. 

 Most naturalists have long since abandoned the idea that genera, or 

 even families, represent anything but the conveniences of classifica- 

 tion, and the recent writers on this family are probably right in seiz- 

 ing upon any characters that will satisfactorily group the vast num- 

 ber of species irrespective of their relative values. But it is very 

 probable that, in the proposal of so many genera in such rapid suc- 

 cession, many characters have been employed which future research 

 will show to be entirely inadequate. We yet know very little about 

 individual variations in this family, or the real value of many of the 

 characters now used. The absence or presence of a bristle may be 

 found to represent a group of species, but we should first learn how 

 constant the character is in species. * * * Seriously, is not the 

 stock of Tachinid genera sufficiently large for the present? Would 

 it not be advisable to study species more before making every trivial 

 character the basis of a new genus?" — Insect Life, vol. v (1892-3), 

 pp. 238-40. 



These words, from the leading authority on American dipterology. 

 written some fifteen years ago and shortly after the appearance of 

 the first two instalments of Brauer and von Bergenstamm's work. 

 may advantageously be taken as a text for some pertinent consider- 

 ations at this time. 



While the great multitude of forms in the Muscoidea seems at 

 first sight chaotic and formidable, the student soon perceives that 

 standing: forth from the general mass there occur certain well- 



