250 



C. B. Osten Sacken: 



„3) An authority for every synonymy is given after it, in brackets []; 

 whenever no authority is mentioned, my own is assumed," 



To § 3 I should perhaps have add'ecl the words: „whenever the 

 synonymy of an authority has been verified and adopted by nie, my 

 Initials are added". As it is, in looking over my Catalogue, I am 

 not always sure whether I have verified the synonymies introduced 

 by me on the authority of other authors. 



All these considerations oecurred to me recently, when I under- 

 took a critical review of my own earliest writings on Tipuli dae. 

 I found that, owing to the incomplete Statements of authors, the veri- 

 fication of synonymies, includiug of course the search for their origin, 

 was a much more troublesome task than I had antieipated. The 

 fnltilment of this task led nie to some results, which I had not ex- 

 pected, and whieh proveel that the task had not yet been properly 

 fulfilled by those who had gone through the work before me. These 

 results I venture to communicate in the present paper. The expla- 

 nation of all the diftieulties met with during such a research may 

 seem tedious, but it is, nevertheless, very instruetive, as it shows the 

 many pitfalls the most consciencious worker (as for instance, Schiner) 

 may encounter through the carelessness of bis predecessors. I am 

 by no means sure of having always fullowed such rules myself, but 

 subsequent experience impels me to impress them upon others. If 

 careless adopting of synonymies. and reckless handling of rules of 

 priority go on for some tiine, dipterology will soon reach a State when 



The dust on antique time would lie unswept, 

 And mountainous error be too highly heaped 

 For truth to over-peer! 



(Shakesp.) 



1. Dicranomyia autumnalis Stäger 

 and D. stigmatica Sehin. 

 These two species have been misunderstood by Schiner in bis 

 Fauna (II, p. 570). I feel a particular interest in them, because they 

 were one of the subjeets treated by me in my rirst entomological essay, 

 published just forty years ago in the „Stettincr Entomologische Zeit- 

 schrift" 1854 (p. 203— 213) under the heading of : Dipterologisches 

 aus S.Petersburg. It treats of Tipulidae only. and contains, 

 amöng other data, the description and the figures of the male forceps'* 

 of the two above-mentioned species. 



