338 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST. (VoL. XXXV. 
About a month later Dr. Wheeler called my attention to a 
number of somewhat similar flies in a nest of Eciton caecum 
Latr. which had been in the laboratory for some time. These 
also proved to be Phoridz, but of a still more degenerate type. 
A more careful examination has shown that these two genera 
are referable to the Stethopathidz, but at the same time are 
evidently degenerate Phoridz, so that the former family must 
be included in the Phorida. Such an addition does not make 
the family an incongruous one. When Loew (57) placed his 
African Psyllomyia in the Phoridz he made a statement equally 
applicable to the present addition : 
“Wenn irgend etwas geeignet ist über die verwandtschaft- 
lichen Beziehungen der Phoriden eine Aufklärung zu geben, so 
sind diess Arten, welche so sehr von dem Typus der in der 
alten Gattung PZora vereinigten abweichen, wie die oben be- 
schriebene, und welche doch der Familie der Phoriden mit so 
bestimmt ausgesprochener Entschiedenheit angehóren wie sie. 
* Leider muss ich bekennen, dass die oft wiederholte Ver- 
gleichung der Psy//omyia testacea mit Diptern gar verschiedener 
Familien mir nach dieser Richtung hin durchaus kein positives 
Resultat gegeben hat, so dass ich die Familie der Phoriden von 
allen andern Familien der Diptern noch so scharf getrennt und 
so unvermittelt zwischen ihnen stehen sehe, wie zuvor." 
With the discovery of the still more degenerate forms his 
remarks lose none of their pertinence. 
The family Stethopathidze was established by Wandolleck in 
1898 ('98b) for the reception of several genera of Diptera which 
are remarkable for the total absence of wirigs and halteres, 
besides other less striking peculiarities. Two of the genera 
which he describes had been previously described by Dahl (97) 
as sexes of a single species which he named Puliciphora lucifera 
and placed among the Phoridz. He, however, considered at 
the same time that they were a connecting form between the 
Aphaniptera and Diptera and accordingly announced that he 
had solved the much-vexed question of the relation of the fleas 
with the Diptera. 
Wandolleck later showed (98a) that this idea is wholly 
erroneous as far as the Aphaniptera are concerned, and that 
