14 



COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. [Mar. 



Report on the present condition of the Collection of Diptera of 

 the Museum of Comparative Zoology, hy C. R. Osten- 

 Sacken. 



The collection consists of three groups: 1, North Amer- 

 ican diptera; 2, European diptera; 3, diptera which are 

 neither European nor North American, and which I will call 

 exotic. 



/. Collection of North American Diptera. — Under North 

 America, I understand the whole continent north of the 

 Isthmus of Panama. The large majority of the diptera of the 

 collection, however, are from the region north of Mexico and 

 east of the Rocky Mountains. The Californian diptera are 

 confined to a small number, sent by Mr. H. Edwards and Mr. 

 W. Holden, or brought home by Mr. A. Agassiz. The Mex- 

 ican diptera are represented by some forty species from my 

 collection ; the West Indian by the small collections made by 

 P. R. Uhler in Hayti, and by Mr. Ch. Wright in Cuba, and 

 also by specimens derived from my own collection. 



The bulk of the scattered materials which I found in the 

 Museum, consisted of a considerable number of specimens 

 from Massachusetts, and principally from the immediate 

 vicinity of Boston, collected by Mr. Uhler, and also contrib- 

 uted by other parties ; collections from more distant localities 

 were obtained from Mr. S. H. Scudder (White Mountains 

 and British Possessions) ; S. I. Smith (Norway, Maine) ; A. 

 S. Packard (Maine, Labrador) ; A. E. Verrill (Anticosti) ; 

 J. A. Allen (Iowa, Illinois) ; J. Boll (Texas) ; A. Agassiz 

 (Lake Superior) . There were also some remains of the Mel- 

 sheimer and Ziegler collections. 



In pursuance of my intention to present my collection of 

 diptera to the Museum, my work last winter consisted in 

 incorporating the above-described materials with my collec- 

 tion ; in naming, as far as possible, the unnamed specimens ; 

 in labelling and classifying the whole, and putting up a gen- 

 eral collection in the cabinets reserved for that purpose. The 

 collection of North American diptera thus formed is now 

 arranged in three cabinets of eighteen drawers each. All the 

 families are classified, with the exception of the group Mus- 

 cidce calypteroe. The sum total of the named species is very 



