DIPTEROUS TRIBE SPH^ROCERID^. 315 



chimed in ; but no, every word was entirely scientific. I re- 

 solved, before another month, to furnish myself with a little 

 more knowledge ; I procured Samouelle's " Compendium," and 

 went to work. Entomology soon opened up to me a new and 

 delightful world ; and, as I lay on my sleepless bed at 

 Darenth, I felt a greater love than ever for the science, on 

 account of the agreeable society into which it had introduced 

 me. 



Art. XXX. — British Species of the Dipterous Tribe 

 Sphceroceridce. By A. H. Haliday, M.A. 



This group was first distinguished from the other Muscidce, 

 under the generic name of Borborus, by Meigen, in the year 

 1803. Latreille, in 1809, called the same Sphcerocera ; and, 

 at a much later period, Fallen included it along with Ccelopa, 

 in his genus Copromyza. With the last-named author, it forms 

 a part of the family Heteromyzides, while Latreille has ranked it 

 in his vast and undigested section Scatomyzides. In Robineau 

 Desvoidy's Essay on this family, we have it subdivided into nine 

 genera, forming the most considerable portion of Putrellidece, 

 the 2d section of his 7th tribe Napceellce. The remainder of 

 that section is composed of the Ephydrce of Fallen ; a con- 

 junction that does not seem very natural. His generic and 

 specific characters are unusually vague in this instance ; and, as 

 he has made no reference to the work of Fallen, it is not easy 

 to identify the species intended by him. An admirable arrange- 

 ment of the genus is given in the last volume of Meigen's 

 European Diptera : thirty species are described, and distributed 

 in six sections, characterized mostly by the wings. Macquart 

 (in the system of Diptera, forming part of the Suites a Buffon) 

 has elevated the group to a higher rank, and adopted those 

 sections for his genera, admitting also Olina, from R. Desvoidy, 

 and adding an eighth, Cramomyia, to receive Borborus glacialis 

 of Meigen. Neither of these last two appears to have occurred 

 in Britain, and the type of the genus Ceroptera has been found 

 only in Portugal. 1 extract Macquart's synoptic table of the 

 genera entire, and propose to adhere to his arrangement and 

 nomenclature. 



