Diptera: Nemocera vera, N. anomala and Eremochaeia. Abi 



Half a dozen or so of Rhyphus, congregated together in a shady 

 jjlace, often near the trunk of a tree, may sometimes ,be seen flying 

 slowly up and down, the legs stretched out perpendicularly down- 

 wards and kept close together. This genus occurs in almost every 

 part of the world which has been explored: Europe, North-America, 

 Colombia, Brazil, Chili, New-Guinea, Tasmania, New-South-Wales, 

 New-Zealand; in all these countries it is represented by a small 

 number of species; all these species are very nearly alike in structure 

 and coloring. And yet, although represented everywhere, Rhyphus 

 is everywhere a solitary genus. His only relatives, at present known, 

 occur on the western coast of South-America, a coast which, with 

 Australia and New-Zealand, harbours many primeval forms. The 

 genera Lohogaste)- in Chili and OUnogaster in Central-America and 

 the West-Indies are undoubtedly Rhyphidae. The family must have 

 been more abundant in the tertiary period, if Loew was right in 

 distinguishing four or five species of Rhyphus among the aniber- 

 diptera. 



That Rhyphus. „nothwithstanding its many-jointed antennae 

 possesscs the venation and the shape of the body of a Leptid" 

 (Brauer, Verh. Z. B. Ges. 1890, p. 273; the same in Z. K. M. 11, 

 p. 4) I deny most emphatically. Anybody who has eyes can easily 

 convince hiniself that the venation of Rhyphus shows several other 

 differences besides the one mentioned by Brauer, and as to the 

 shape of the body, one must be singularly wanting in appreciation 

 of affinities to make such a comparison. 



Remarks about the larva of Rliyphiis. 



Perris (Ann. Soc. Ent. Fr. 1870, p. 190) is tho only author who 

 describes the anterior spiracles of this larva: „deux tres petits 

 orifices sur les cotes du premier seginent." I find in ray notes about 

 the nmevicau Rhyphiis punctatus which I bred many years ago, „in 

 front a pair of distinct elliptical three-creviced spiracles". The larvae 

 have five fleshy points or protuberances at the end of the body, as 

 Perris, Beling and myself saw them. Brau er 's Statement (Z. 

 K. M. III p. 20): „Aftersegment mit zwei kurzen Fleischspitzcn" is 

 copied from Bouche, p. 43 and erroneous. Reaumur, Dufour 

 and Walker, Dipt. Brit. III are also in error, when they spoak of 

 four protuberances. 



Beling says (Wiegni. Arch. 1872, p. 54): „Die Larven des R. 

 fenestralis unterscheiden sich sogleich von denen des R. punctatus 

 durch die bei Letzterem um drei grössere (it should be „kleinere") 

 Anzahl der Körperabschnitte etc." The foUowing passage in Perris, 



