CLUSIIDAE (HETERONEURID AE) AND 

 SAPROMYZIDAE 



By J. R. Malloch, Bureau of Biological Survey, Washington, D.C., U.S.A. 



(With 6 Text-figures.) 



CLUSIIDAE. 



In 1925 Melander and Argo {Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus., Vol. 64, Art. 11, pp. 1-54, 

 Pis. 1-4, 1925) published a revision of this family, and included in their paper 

 keys to all the recognized genera and species of the world. They recorded the 

 fact that no species had then " been described from Africa, Australia, or Asia," 

 while only four of the eighty known species " have been recorded from the 

 islands south of Asia." Since the appearance of that paper I have described an 

 Australian species, and more recently Bezzi {Diptera Brachycera and Athericera 

 of the Fiji Islands, p. 87, 1928) described one from a solitary specimen from 

 Fiji. Both of these species belong to the genus Meter omeringia Czerny, which 

 was previously known to be represented in North and South America, and in 

 Europe. In the Samoan material I find examples of two species which are not 

 referable to any known genus, and are therefore described below. 



The species of which the life-histories are known live in the larval and pupal 

 stages in dead wood, some of them under the bark of recently felled trees, others 

 in rotten portions of growing trees, and still others in much decayed, spongy 

 areas in dead tree-stumps or logs. Usually the flies may be found on the trunks 

 of trees suitable for their oviposition and especially on fallen timber, but unless 

 searched for in such situations they are seldom met with, and thus are much 

 rarer in collections than is the case with some other families which are more 

 promiscuous in their flight habits. Neither in their immature nor mature stages 

 are the species of economic importance to man. 



Isoclusia, gen. n. 



This genus has two pairs of reclinate orbital bristles, no cruciate inter- 

 frontals, ocellars and postverticals present, equal in length, and shorter than 



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