REPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST I907 237 



M^ attached to M^^^ by the cross vein, and often remarkably 

 simulating a real M^. After this shift, it may fuse with M^+^ 

 as shown at 7i, or its base may recede to simulate a deepening 

 fork, as in Mesocyphona [pi. 23, fig. 3] as at 0, and the base of 

 M^+^ may even be deflected upward to enter more strongly into 

 the composition of the cord as at p, Amphineura [pi. 9, fig. 6]. 



There are some minor shifts of parts that occur sporadically; 

 the foregoing are the general tendencies. Cell ist ]\P is shifted very 

 far inward in Lechria [pi. 9, fig. 5], very far outward in Oropeza 

 [pi. 16, fig. 3] and Paratropeza [pi. 28, fig. 4]. The hind margin 

 of the wing is beautifully scalloped in Dapanoptera [pi. 28, fig. 3]. 

 There is a striking decurvature of veins at the tip in Libnotes 

 [pi. 28, fig. 5, 6]. The base of the radial sector is strongly bent 

 in Paratropeza [pi. 21, fig. 4], and mere sharply, and with a 

 most curious compensatory adjustment of R^+^ in Goniodineura, 

 [pi. 28, fig. 2]. And there are endless other less striking peculi- 

 arities of venation occurring here and there. Unlike the higher 

 families of Diptera, no single major trend of venational speciali- 

 zation is firmly established in the Tipulidae. There appear to 

 be grotesque specializations as well as useful ones, and the 

 best flyers are certainly not always those that have departed 

 most widely from primitive conditions. 



Recently Professor Williston, while engaged in a well meant 

 effort to rehabilitate the outgrown systems of nomenclature with 

 which dipterologists have wrought confusion for several genera- 

 tions^, has cited some wholly imaginary difficulties connected with 

 Professor Comstock's interpretation of the venation of the Diptera. 

 He thinks it may be the cubital vein that is three branched typically 

 in Diptera, instead of the median ; but he gives no evidence tending 

 to support such belief, and it is negatived by the existence of a 

 distinct m-cu cross vein in many generalized Diptera [see pi. 4-7] 

 and by the conditions found in other related orders. He further 

 says that he does not at all agree with Comstock in the opinion that 

 when the branches of the median vein undergo reduction, it is vein 

 M^ that is longest preserved ; but he gives not a scrap of evidence 



^Williston, S. W. Some common errors in the nomenclature of the dip- 

 terous wing. Psyche. 1906. 13:154-57. The reader is recommended to read 

 this article, and also the remarks of Osten Sacken given by Skuse in Linn. 

 Soc. N. S. Wales. Proc. (2) 5 :595^8, beginning with the words on p. 596 

 "It is a sore subject in Dipterology." Then if he desire further sensations, 

 let him consult Heyden's illustrations of three Loewian systems for as many 

 different dipterous families given in Paleontographica, vol. 17, or let him 

 read the section on venation in almost any work on systematic dipterology. 



