YORKSHIRE NATURALISTS UNION. I9 



yOEKSHIEE DIPTEEA IN 1877. 



By S. L, MOSLEY, Huddersfield. 



I have only been rather over a year in the study, and would 

 therefore that abler hands than mine had undertaken the task of 

 writing what is known of the Diptera of our county, but a little 

 will be better than nothing at all. The species enumerated are 

 what I have taken in Yorkshire, or rather, so far as have been 

 •determined for me. I have many others, the names of- which I 

 do not know at present, and a considerably greater number no 

 doubt have escaped my notice altogether, so that this list must be 

 taken as very, very far from being complete. Besides, this is one 

 of those departments of entomology that has to be pursued under 

 great difficulties, especially by working men like myself, and of 

 which our Union is for the most part composed. The workers in 

 this department are few and far between, and the consequence is 

 that it is difficult for one to get that friendly help which naturalists 

 should always be as happy to give as they are to receive. One 

 dipterist (Dr. R. H. Meade) has very kindly volunteered to name for 

 me any specimens he could, and on several occasions I have 

 benefited from his considerable knowledge of this order, but still one 

 cannot pretend to trespass unmercifully upon another's kindness, 

 however willing he may be; and to have a box or two of closely 

 allied species of a little known order of insects to name every 

 week is a task only known to those who have tried it. This is 

 one of the "neglected orders," and I have taken it up because 

 it is neglected, especially in this part of the country. Naturalists 

 have little or no inducement to begin with such (at first sight) 

 unattractive insects, and even where a library of natural history 

 books exists, books are only provided on those branches in which 

 there is a general run, and no new tracks are opened for new 

 beginners ; the result is that you get a lot all "going in" for the 

 same thing, as is the case with Lepidoptera especially. Books on 

 Diptera are scarce and expensive, and, besides, the best books 

 are written in Latin or German, and as most working naturalists 



