New Zealand Cyrtidae (Diptera) and the 
Problem of the Pacific Island Fauna. 
S. J. Par among v 1 
During the preparation of a review of 
the Australian Cyrtidae some New Zealand 
materia] was used for comparison. The study 
of this material has shown that a review of 
New Zealand cyrtids is also required. For the 
clarification of some systematic problems the 
author was forced to collect all available in- 
formation about New Zealand cyrtids, and 
to write a short, preliminary review of them. 
The publication of this review, the author 
thinks, will be useful for New Zealand dip- 
terists. The author quotes the descriptions in 
extenso , because they are dispersed mostly in 
old, not very easily accessible publications 
and it will facilitate the undertaking of a more 
extensive study of New Zealand members of 
the family. 
Comparison of the fauna of cyrtids of New 
Zealand and Australia has given material for 
some general conclusions, which can be used 
in solving the problem of the Pacific fauna. 
The representation of Cyrtidae in New Zea- 
land is very poor: 1 species of Apsona , 3 spe- 
cies of Helle, and 3 species of Oncodes , 
representing three different subfamilies, but 
it has some significance in the problem of the 
origin of the Pacific fauna. 
To the present time representatives of the 
genera Apsona (Panopinae) and Helle (Phil- 
opotinae) are not known in Australia and 
there is no reason to believe that they will be 
found here in the future. 
1 Division of Entomology, Commonwealth Scien- 
tific and Industrial Research Organization, Canberra, 
A.C.T. Australia. Manuscript received June 28, 1954. 
The author has had an opportunity to study 
some specimens of Apsona muscaria West- 
wood, the only species of the genus if we do 
not include Apsona caerulea Brunetti from 
Brazil. (Brunetti has not compared his species 
with Eulonchus and it is difficult to tell to 
which genus the Brazilian species belongs.) 
He has found an astonishing similarity be- 
tween muscaria and Eulonchus smaragdinus 
Gerst. from California. The size, shape, col- 
our, structure of integument, venation, hairs, 
and many other characters are so similar that 
they can almost be regarded as belonging to 
the same species. Only detailed study under 
a lens (see below) shows that they are differ- 
ent, but the generic difference between them 
is in doubt. 
A comparison of all Apsona and Eulonchus 
species will doubtlessly show that Apsona mus- 
caria Westw. and Eulonchus smaragdinus Gerst. 
are remarkably close or possibly congeneric. 
Lack of material does not permit the author 
to state that the two genera are synonymous, 
but there is no doubt about their very close 
relationship. The species of the complex Eu- 
lonchus- Apsona are distributed in New Zealand, 
North America and South America, but are 
quite absent from Australia. 
The genus Helle is comparatively very well 
represented in New Zealand (three species), 
whereas no representatives of the whole sub- 
family Philopotinae are recorded for Australia. 
Elsewhere the distribution of the subfamily 
is confined to widely separated areas. In Amer- 
ica the genus Helle is absent, but Philopota , a 
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