78 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 
VITI.—A Guide to the Literature of British Diptera. Vice-Presidential 
Address by Percy H. Grimshaw, F.R.S.E, F.ES., delivered 27th 
November 1916. 
ONE of the main difficulties encountered by the student of British Diptera 
lies in the fact that there does not exist an up-to-date work dealing with 
the whole subject, and that therefore recourse must be had to articles which ~ 
are scattered throughout our serial literature, whether periodical magazines 
or the proceedings of scientific societies. Such a procedure is in itself not 
an easy task, for many of the serials are not readily accessible to everyone, 
while it is no light undertaking to search their pages or indices on the 
chance (and such is a small one) of finding an odd paper which may be of 
use in the desired direction. It is true that, since the year 1864, the 
admirable “hardy annual” known as the “ Zoological Record” has appeared 
regularly and is of the utmost service, but this publication is not found in 
every library, while the articles dealing with the British aspect of 
Dipterology have to be sought amid a bewildering mass of titles which 
include memoirs in the languages of all civilised nations. 
In the following pages I have endeavoured to supply a guide to the 
literature of British Dipterology, going back about 150 years. I have used 
every reasonable means to make this bibliography sufficiently complete,' and 
I trust that there will be found, in one place or other, the titles of all books 
and papers in British literature which are of importance to, or which have 
any claim to be considered useful to, the student of our native Two-winged 
Flies. In some groups, especially those which comprise insects of economic 
importance, a fair amount of literature exists in our own country, but in 
others, on the other hand, no work appears to have been done by British 
authors since the early days of the science. For the study of these neglected 
groups it will be necessary to consult the literature of foreign countries, more 
particularly those of continental Europe, which possess a fauna similar to 
our own. 
I. General Descriptive Works. 
At the outset I propose to give a very brief account of some early works 
which attempted to cover the whole ground of British Entomology, and shall 
endeavour to indicate what special information they contain anent the 
particular Order in which we are concerned. It is somewhat difficult to 
1 In the present bibliography only “major articles” are included. The short notes 
which, in the main, are of a purely faunistic nature, are far too numerous for insertion in 
the list. 
