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DIPTERA OF AUSTRALIA. 



By Frederick A. A. Skuse. 



Part I. 



(Plates II. and iii.) 



Up to the present time very little has been done towards a 

 knowledge of the Australian Diptera, and this, for more than one 

 reason, is not so remarkable as may at the outset appear. Firstly, 

 to properly work-up any order in the insect fauna of any country, 

 or even any locality, it is absolutely essential that the entomologist 

 should be on the spot, and his observations, to be of value, must 

 necessarily be the result of extended investigations; but not a single 

 species of Diptera of this country has ever been described here. If 

 the entomologist be thousands of miles away he can only deal with 

 shrunken or otherwise altered specimens, besides lieing quite 

 unable to search out the habitats and study the habits of the 

 species ; whereas if these be taken account of the results are 

 eminently more interesting and valuable than the mere des- 

 criptions of dried specimens. Secondly, the fragility of some 

 and the sniallness of many have not induced collectors working 

 amidst a profusion of insects of greater size and more attractive 

 appearance (at tiie same time loadily stored and demanding only 

 a minimum of trouble) to concern themselves about Diptera. 

 Thirdly, the few entomologists that there are in this country have 

 found, and still continue to (ind, so much to do amongst the larger 

 and more easily handled insects which generally excite the first 

 attention. Lastly, the undertaking is one not unaccompanied 

 with great dilliculty and liability to Ijlundering ; and to success- 

 fully commc-nce an<l prosecute this study, the student must be 

 endowed with considerably more i\\a.n i\ maixn quaiUuia oi patience 



