BY FREDERICK A. A. SKUSE. 35 



Classification of the CECiDOMYiDiE. 



The term Cecidomt/ia was first applied by Meigen in 1803 to 

 a genus established by hitn to' contain those flies (with the 

 exception of Lasioptera and Clinorhyncha) now divided into 

 several sub-genera, and placed by Prof. Loew in the section 

 Cecidomyina of the family Cecidomyidse. In 1818 Meigen (Syst. 

 Beschr. I.) also instituted the genera Lasioptera and Campylomyza, 

 placing the three in a tribe denominated Tipularice gallicolce ; and 

 at this period, those families at present constituting the great 

 division Nematocera, were simply regarded as genera belonging to 

 a single family Tipuliarise. The family name Tipulariae and the 

 generic Tipula were first employed by Linnt^us (Syst. Nat.) in 

 1735, but the study of the gall midges really only dates from 

 about the beginning of the nineteenth century, though Linnaeus 

 described four or five as early as 1761 ; also Fabricius and Shrank 

 described a small number in 1781, all under the name of Tipula. 

 Kirby (Trans, Linn. Soc. Lond. 1798) has published a long 

 account of the habits and the metamorphoses of Tipula tritici, 

 a renowned enemy of wheat crops, at the present day classified as 

 Cecidomt/ia ( Diplosis) trilici. 



In 1825 Latreille substituted Nemocera for the old family 

 name Tipularite, and he divided the group into two tribes (1) 

 Culicides and (2) Tipularice, the genera Cecidomyia and Lasioptera 

 )>eing [)laced in a kind of sub-division, Gallicoloc, together with 

 Psijchoda, <fec. ; but Campi/lomyza was separated from them and 

 located with Hies which now contribute to the family Myceto- 

 philidie, then called Fungivorae. 



In the year 1828 Wiedemann (Auss. Europ. Zwtl.) adopted the 

 cla.s8ification of Meigen, Vjut added a species of Lasioptera, two 

 of Cecidomyia, and a Campylomyza, all desci'il)ed by Say from North 

 America a short titiu! jn-c^viously, including Cecidomyia destructor 

 in 1817. 



^Nlacquart in 1834 (Hist. Ntit. des Insects, Dipt.) converted 

 the tribes Culcides and Tipularice into families, and tlio latter 



