ON THE NEW ZEALAND DIPTEROUS FAUNA. 201 
There is a Syrphus, which must be.common, because I have 
ten specimens, both from Greymouth and another locality (North 
Island ?). I cannot distinguish it from the European S. mellinus 
(xalaris, Fab.) A similar species, which I likewise cannot dis- 
tinguish from the European me/linus, although it has been de- 
scribed under a different name (S. orzentalis, Wied.), exists in 
Java and Sumatra. Syrf/i are excellent flyers, and are carried 
by the wind to very great distances. I believe, therefore, that 
the species in question may have existed on the island even 
before the arrival of the first European ships. Scadopse notata, 
likewise in my New Zealand collection, has been probably intro- 
duced in ships. A Czlex looks very much like the European C. 
nemorosus. Some Chironimi have a very familiar look, also 
Coelopa, common among sea-weeds. They will require a closer 
comparison. 
The study of the North American dipterous fauna during 
the last quarter of a century has brought to light a striking 
affinity between that fauna and the fossil one, the fragments of 
which have been preserved in the Prussian amber. Several ex- 
traordinary forms, first discovered in that amber, were found to 
be still living in North America. Such are,among the Tipulide, 
the Tanyderus (Macrochile, Lw.); the Elephantomyia,a Limnobid 
with a filiform proboscis, as long as the whole body ; an Arzocera, 
with enormously long antenne. Among the other families, 
Arthropeas, an intermediate form between Zabanide and Lep- 
tide ; Lolbomyia, a dipteron of a very doubtful position, perhaps 
related to the Stratzomyidw ; several Dolichopodide ; Sphyrace- 
phala, belonging to}the Dzopside, the stalk-eyed diptera. Like 
the fauna, the flora of North America still retains many forms 
that are now extinct in Europe, and only found fossil in the ter- 
tiary strata. It is »ossible, therefore, that the same correspond- 
ence will be found to exist between the flora of New Zealand and 
its dipterous fauna, and that forms of that order of insects may 
be discovered which it will be difficult to place in the now adopted 
families. FForsome reason, perhaps on account of their greater 
power of rapid spreading, Diptera seem to have been more en- 
during through geological ages than other orders of insects, at 
least I certainly know of more remarkable instances of discon- 
nected, widely scattered areas of distribution among Diptera than 
I have been able to ascertain among other orders. 
It is very much to be desired, therefore, that collections of 
New Zealand Diptera should be formed before the aboriginal 
fauna is too much modified by civilisation. Those most interest- 
ing survivals of past geological ages are generally among the 
rarest of insects, and among the first to be wiped out. 
May this unpretending paper help to promote the interest in 
that subject. fi 
Heidelberg, Germany, June, 1884. 
