1889.] 393 



SECOND SUPPLEMENT TO ANNOTATED LIST OF BRITISH 

 ANTROMTIIDM. 



BY E. H. MEADE. 



This Family of Diptera contains so many species, and so many 

 that are closely allied to each other, that I shall offer no apology for 

 publishing some further remarks upon it. Since the date of my last 

 supplement* several additional British species have been found, some 

 of which seem new to science, while others are new to Great Britain ; 

 all of these I shall be glad to record, describing those that are new, 

 and shortly pointing out those characters belonging to others by which 

 they may be distinguished from their congeners, or which seem to be 

 of interest. 



The Anthotnyiidce have lately received a good deal of attention 

 from continental Dipterists, especially from Dr. John Schnabl, of 

 "Warsaw, who has published several very valuable papers upon them.f 

 He kindly sent me several rare and doubtful species, which will enable 

 me to clear up some difficult and disputed points of synonymy. 



Dr. Schnabl commenced his first paper by some remarks or criti- 

 cisms upon the generic groups into which this Family has been sub- 

 divided, stating that he considered the genera Hyetodesia, Mydcea, 

 Spilogaster, Limnophora, and Trichoptliicus to be separated from each 

 other by insufficient and very artificial characters ; he would, therefore, 

 retain them in a single genus, for which he would keep E. Desvoidy's 

 old name of Aricia. 



This would be really a retrograde movement, as Prof. Mik has 

 pointed out ;% for as it is necessary, for the sake of convenience, to 

 cut up large groups of species into smaller ones, it is better to give 

 these groups names than to sub-divide the Antliomyiidce in the way 

 Zetterstedt and Walker have done, and as Meigen did at first. 



It is impossible to make any generic groups altogether natural, 

 for Nature knows nothing of genera, being only cognizant of species 

 or individuals ; all that we can do is to arrange those species together 

 which resemble each other by the greatest number of characters ; and, 

 after all, every genus will contain some aberrant species which might 

 almost be as well placed in another genus. 



The genus among those mentioned which is most anomalous and 

 difficult to define, or separate from Hyetodesia, is Trichopthicus of 



* January, 1887. 



t " Contributions a la Faune Dipterologique," par J. Schnabl. St. Petersburg : 1887, 1888, 1889. 



t Entomologische Nachrichten, 1887, Heft. xv. 



