The Philippine Journal of Science 



Musca humilis Wiedemann.* 



Musca latifrons Wiedemann.* 



Musca mediana Wiedemann.* 



Musca spectanda Wiedemann.* 



Musca angustifrons Thomson.* 



Musca bivittata Thomson.* 



Musca sordissima Walker.* 



Musca eutentiata Bigot.* 



Musca scapularis Rondani. 



Musca conducens Patton (nee Walker).* 



Musca praecox Patton (nee Walker).* 



? Musca promisca Awati. 



The well-known and widely distributed, two-striped, gray, 

 tropical house and camp fly. 



It is interesting to note that the well-known and common 

 Musca humilis was described no less than five times by such a 

 careful worker as Wiedemann ; sorbens is now the oldest name. 

 Musca sorbens, No. 58, a female, came from Sierra Leone; M. 

 humilis, No. 59, a male, came from India; M. spectanda, No. 61, 

 a male, came from Sierra Leone; M. latifrons, No. 16, 4 a female, 

 came from Macao; and M. mediana, No. 18 in the Appendix, a 

 male, came from China. 



Wiedemann says the specimens of mediana from which he 

 wrote his description are in Trentepohl's and his collections. 

 The former, at Copenhagen, is however not sorbens but the 

 species long known to me as Musca convexifrons Thomson, and 

 which I now know is Musca xanthomelas Wiedemann. The spec- 

 imen in von Winthem's collection at Vienna, which I now have 

 before me, has a small piece of red paper indicating that 

 Wiedemann meant it to be his type, and so I interpret it; it is 

 a typical specimen of the female sorbens. 



Most dipterists who have attempted to determine Musca spec- 

 tanda from Wiedemann's description alone have gone wide of 

 the mark; and I must admit that, though I have read the de- 

 scription of spectanda many times, I never recognized in it 

 humilis, or, as it should now be called, sorbens. This is a very 

 good example of the great importance of examining all the types 

 of these older authors. I have already corrected a mistake made 

 in interpreting Musca conducens Walker and M. praecox Walker 

 as sorbens; both are, however, quite another species (see below) . 



* Appendix to Volume II, Aussereuropaische zweiflugelige Insecten. 



