76 
REVIEWS. 
plates over the ventral of each abdominal segment, in particular genera 
resulting in the total disappearance of some, or even all the ventral plates. 
This character deserved notice the more as it would have supplied available 
marks for the distinction of the sub-families. 
According to common usage, the author divides the family Muscidce into 
the groups Calypterce and Acalypterce. He might have chosen a cha¬ 
racter more natural and more free from ambiguity, for beginners especially, 
if he had constituted the first group of all those genera in which the prse- 
brachial vein takes an angular course forwards, or is bent towards the 
cubital vein, not merely converging to it; and had left in the second group 
all in which this is not the case. The point of contact of the two groups 
lies between the genus Cyrtoneurci and certain Anthomyice in which the 
praebrachial vein is bent forwards at the end. In order to draw the line more 
precisely, these last mentioned species might very properly be transferred 
to the genus Cyrtoneura , where they would stand quite as well as in An- 
thomyia. The occurrence of some species of Tachina with abbreviated prae- 
brachial vein is no material objection to such a division; which, however, 
is only applicable to the indigenous fauna, as there are exotic genera allied 
to Dacus and Platystoma in which the praebrachial vein ends in the 
cubital. 
The group Calypterce (the Myopides being excluded, as belonging to 
another family) is divided by Mr. Walker into the sub-families Tachinides , 
Dexides , Sarcophagides , Muscides , and Anthomyides ; the last of which, 
according to the primary division we have proposed above, would fall under 
the second group, with which it is connected by more numerous relations 
of affinity than with the first; although its close affinity to the Muscides 
also is undeniable. Phasia and the allied genera are associated with the 
Tachinides : this seems unadvisable, considering the different structure of 
the abdomen, and the very peculiar distinctions of the sexes. The Sto- 
moxydes are included with the Muscides ; a combination to be approved, in 
regard to the indigenous fauna at least. All previous attempts to separate the 
sub-families, Tachinides , Dexides , Sarcophagides , and Muscides , by 
tenable characters, have proved futile; nor has Mr. Walker succeeded 
better than his predecessors have done, or his successors are likely to do 
for a long time to come. The weakest point in this arrangement seems to 
us to be his distinction of the Sarcophagides from the Dexides and 
Tachinides by the thorax, long in the first, short in the two latter groups; 
since this part appears to be quite as much elongated in many, both of the 
Tachinides and Dexides , as in any Sarcophaga. 
