[Berliner Entomologische Zeitschrift Bd. XXVI. 1882. Heft II.] 



Diptera from the Philippine Islands 



brought home by Dr. Carl Semper, 



and described by 



O. R. Osten Sacken. 



(Fortsetzung aus Bd. XXVI Heft I ) 



M i 1 e s i a. 



South Eastern Asia, and especially the Indo-Malayan Archipelago 

 seem to be the real home of this handsome genus. Thirteen spe- 

 cies from the Archipelago have already been described; to these I add 

 now three from the Philippine Islands; one more is known from Ja- 

 pan. From the other parts of the world I know of only two european 

 species and one north-american; a second north-american species, 

 described by Macquart, may be merely a variety. The Milesia canu- 

 sium Wk., from the Cape, does not seem to be a Milesia in the narrower 

 sense; nor the M. bilineata Wk. List, III, 566 from New Zealand. 

 Whether there are some true Milesiae among the South-American species 

 referred by authors to that genus, I am unable to teil; by all means 

 there are not many. 



When Rondani (N. Ann. di Bologna 1844) introduced the genus 

 Sphixea for M. fulminans, restricting the genus Milesia to JkT. 

 diophthalma, he was not aware of the existence of the genus Spilo- 

 myia Meig. Illig. Mag. 1803, introduced for that very species M. 

 diophthalma and which therefore must be retained for it. The arrangement 

 proposed by Schiner to restrict Milesia to M. crahroniforTnis and 

 fulminans and S'pilomyia to M. diophthalma, vespiformis etc. is 

 quite satisfactory, and should be retained; it has been explained at 

 length by Schiner in his Diptera Austriaca, III, Syrphidae, p. 166 

 (Verh. Zool. Bot. Ver. 1857 '). 



The identification of the thirteen indo-malayan species from the 

 descriptions is somewhat difficult, because they are often closely allied 

 and it is sometimes hard to decide whether the observed differences are 



^) It is only after the publication of Dr. Schiner's work that 

 Rondani became acquainted with Spilomyia M.; he insisted never- 

 theless upön his own arrangement. (Rond. Dipt. Exotica, in Archivio 

 per la Zool. Modena 1863.) 



XXVI. Heft ir. 13 



