BY FREDERICK A. A. SKUSE. 
11-25 
There seems to be a great variety in the structure of the holding- 
forceps of the male; in some genera it is a very complex piece 
of mechanism provided with numerous spines, claws and setse, 
and often cannot fail to elicit wonder from the observer as to 
what are the uses of the various parts. Amongst the small 
number of Australian Mycetophilidae I have studied, I have only 
been able to give the male genitalia a cursory examination, but 
in two instances I have figured them. 
Winnertz in his Monograph of the Mycetophilidae draws a sum- 
mary of the European genera known to him, and in the following 
pages I have given a translation of this valuable portion of his 
work, altered to suit the interpetration of the alar-vein system 
which I adopt; and I have introduced amongst the genera, sketches 
of as many of the genera established since the work of Winnertz, 
including those characterized from all parts of the world, as I 
have been able to make out. My reason for taking this trouble 
is in order to make easier the recognition of hitherto defined 
genera, species of any of which, it is not improbable, may be yet 
discovered in Australia. It is more than possible that there are 
some established genera of which I have not seen even the names, 
while there ai-e also others of which I have been able only to give 
the chai’acteristics as they are presented Vjy the authors who drew 
them up ; in some instances these latter are insufficient for me to 
be aVjle to divine their proper place amongst the other genera, and 
these I have for the present set aside by themselves. 
CLASSIFKJATIOX OF THE MYCETOPlIILIDiE. 
The Mycetophilidae are so well-defined, and the systematic 
position of the genera has been .so well .settled Ijy the labours of 
Winnertz, that in the present state of our knowledge of the family 
no attempt to improve upon the work of this author has l)een either 
called for or attempted. I shall not essay an historical account of 
the classification of the family, through inability to im[)rove u[)on 
that already e.xtant in Winnertz’s invaluable mouogra[)li ; the 
great knowledge of that author has enabled him to ably pronounce 
