A Guide to the Literature of British Diptera. 81 
volumes, but, unfortunately for the science of Dipterology, Verrall only lived 
to publish two volumes. These are— 
6. VERRALL, G. H.: British Flies. Vol. viii, Platypezide, Pipunculide, 
and Syrphide of Great Britain. London, Gurney & Jackson, Ist Jan. 
1901. 
@ VERRALL, G. H.: British Flies. Vol. v., Stratiomyide and succeeding 
Families of the Diptera Brachycera of Great Britain. London, 
Gurney & Jackson, Ist January 1909. 
These two volumes stand out as exhaustive monographs of the Families 
concerned, and as such are by far the most important works of their kind 
in any European language. The only criticism that may be raised against 
them is that possibly the author, in his specific descriptions, has erred on 
_ the side of fulness. Thus, in his description of Haematopota pluvialis, the 
Common Cleg, diagnosed by Linneus in 8 words, Verrall uses over 3600— 
without including general remarks on synonymy and distribution. Far be 
it from my intention to cast any slur on the work of the greatest British 
Dipterist of all time, but one does feel the working through of these 
descriptions tedious in the extreme. 
In the years intervening between Verrall’s two volumes, there appeared 
the following less ambitious but excellent guide for the student, under an 
unassuming and somewhat misleading title :— 
8. WinGate, W. J.: A Preliminary List of Durham Diptera, with Analytical 
Tables. Zrans. Nat. Hist. Soc. Northumberland, Durham, and 
Newcastle-upon-Tyne (N.S8.), vol. i1., 1906. 
This modestly announced volume is much more than a “ List,” for there 
is not only a concise and distinctly useful epitome of the external structure 
of flies, with an explanation of terms used in descriptions, but analytical 
tables of the whole of the British Diptera save the difficult Families 
Cecidomyiide and Mycetophilide. 
The discovery of the intimate. relationship that exists between Diptera 
and disease led to a vastly increased output of literature on flies in all parts 
of the civilised world, and a work which thus originated will be of much 
service as an atlas for the identification of certain British species. This is 
the following :— 
9. AuSTEN, E. E.: Illustrations of British Blood-sucking Flies, with Notes. 
London, British Museum, 1906. 
The plates in this work can hardly be surpassed for beauty and fidelity, 
but the accompanying text is very limited and does not aim at being more 
than of a general character. 
