4ö'S Osten Sacken: on the cliaracters of the three divisions uf 



I.e. p. 101, [{howi fenestraUs explains this discrepancy: „Los deiix 

 dcrniers segments sont divises chaciin en deux parties presquc ogales, 

 de Sorte qu'on serait teilte de compter onze segments abdomiiiaux." 

 Beling counted eloveii segments in the larva of R. punctatus and 

 fourteen in R. fenestralis. I counted twclvc segments in R. 

 punctatus, takiiig tlie last segmcnt for one; in adding to tliese twclvc 

 the two spurious segments obscrved by Perris in R. fenestralis \^'c 

 obtain for tliis species fourteen apparent segments, which is exactly 

 the number counted by Beling. 



Orplineiiliilidae. Tliey are represented by a Single genus Orphne- 

 phila which, with regard to its relationship, is perhaps the most 

 refractory form among all Diptera. Hitherto four species have been 

 found in Europe, one of which also occurs in North-America; one 

 species has been mentioned by Mr. v. Reeder (Stett. Ent. Z. 188G, 

 p. 261) as occurring in Equador at an altitude of 14,000 feet. The 

 genus Orphnepliila oflfers one of the rare instances of a holoptic 

 head in both sexesi) (the eyes, which I observed in life, are dark, 

 unicolored). The palpi are comparatively long, the antennae, on the 

 contrary short, 11 (or 12?) jointed, nearly of the same structure in 

 both sexes, with more.or less homologous joints of the flagellum; they 

 bear sonie scattered hairs, but none of those verticillate or busliy 

 hairs that distinguish most of the true Nemocei^a. The venation 

 cannot be coinpared to any other; the evanescence of the proximal 

 section of the fourth vein is remarkable. The axillary excision and 

 the alula are obsolete, the antitegula small, but distinct, the tegula 

 rudimentary. The structure of the male forceps is also peculiar; the 

 lamella supera forming a kind of covering for the forceps below it. 

 The halteres (and especially the club) are rather large. I^egs simple, 

 bare, unarmed, of moderate and nearly equal length; tibiae without 

 spines; tarsi rather long, metatarsi of the front legs nearly as long 

 as the tibiae, those of the bind legs shorter; penultimate Joint short, 

 emarginate, obcordate; ungues very small, empodia rudimentary, 

 bcset with minutc hairs (this is as I see it in my dry specimens; 

 Haliday in bis excellent description, in Walk. Ins. Brit. Dipt. III, 

 p. 265 has: „Onychia dilated, empodium inconspicuous"). 



The early stages are unknown. 



]) Besides OrphnepMla, holoptic heads in both sexes occur, as 

 far as I know, only in the following famih'es and genera of Diptera: 

 nmong the Oi/rtidae and Slepharoceridae, in Systropus and in certain 

 Jlitnpidae {Hybos and the related genera). 



