second notice on the Apiocerma. 315 



midas the metapleura is strongly bulging, conical; this is the „conical 

 body"the homology of which I did not attempt to explain in the 

 "Western Diptera, p. 282). The characters of the body, the genitals 

 and the chaetotaxy of the Apiocerina do not differ in the essentials 

 from those of the Asilidae, and expecially of the Section Asilina. 



As Mr. Willis ton has oniitted the Apiocerina from his recently 

 published „List of South-Amer. Asilidae" (Trans. Am. Ent. Soc. 1891), 

 I conclude that he still holds the opinion about their position, which 

 he expressed in his paper: Hilarimorpha and Apiocera in Psyche, 

 Vol. V, p. 100, 1888. To the first part of this paper, about Hilari- 

 morpha, I have replied elsewhere (Berl. Ent. Z. 1890, p. 303). In 

 the second part Mr. Williston quotes what he calls my „elaborate" 

 article about Apiocera, but he does not seem to have paid much atten- 

 tion to my argumcnts, including the very cogent ones, borrowed from 

 chaetotactic characters, about the affinity between Apiocera and the 

 Asilidae, and their dissimilarity from the Midaidae. His article 

 concludes with the words that the Apioceridae are „most nearly 

 related geologically to the Nemestrinidae and Midaidae, next 

 to the Asilidae and less intimately to the Therevidae". This 

 is certainly a non-committal way of solving the question, and the 

 allusion to the Therevidae especially tends to conciliate the most 

 diverging opinions. An interesting fact, raentioned in this paper, is 

 that in one of the australian species, both male and female, in Mr. 

 Williston's possession, there is no indication whatever of the anterior 

 branch to the third longitudinal vein. 



It remains for me to answer an objection of Mik (Wien. Ent. 

 Z. 1888, p. 181 — 182) against the location of Apiocera among the 

 Asilidae, He notices the enlarged facets in the middle of the 

 flattened eyes of the Asilidae and does not find them in Apiocera. 

 This structure of the eyes of the Asilidae is nothing new to those 

 who paid any attention to this family, and has been used ad nau- 

 seam by Walker in his bad descriptions (compare all the descrip- 

 tions of Dasypogons in Walker's List, Vol. H, especially those on 

 p. 346 — 356). It is most developed in the Dasypogons and is almost 

 imperceptible in most species of the genus Asilns in Schiner's 

 sense as well as in Apiocera, although in a slight degree it exists 

 n both. It has no value as a criterion at all. It must represent 

 some adaptation for predaceous purposes, because it is very distinct 

 in some Dolichopodidae. 



i) About this part of the thorax compare my Essay on Chaeto- 

 taxy, in the Trans. Ent. Soc. London, 1884, p. 504. 



