78 
REVIEWS. 
joint preceding it. The figure of the antennas of Phora also shows but one 
such. 
The second volume ends with the Eproboscidea | divided, properly enough, 
into the two families, Hippoboscid^e and Nycteribid^e. 
The third volume, besides the group Suctoridea , contains the Nemocera , 
divided into the following families :— 
1. Mycetophilidce.— -This family includes two essentially distinct 
groups, the first ending with the genus Sciara , while the second consists 
of the genera Zygoneura , Epidapus , Lestremia , Cecidogona , Anarete , 
Catoclna , and Campylomyza , distinguished from the preceding by the 
shorter coxae, and the absence of spurs to the tibiae, as well as by pecu¬ 
liarities of the venation and of the antennae. It is palpable, indeed, that 
this second group holds an intermediate place between the first group of 
the Mycetophilidce and the family Cecidomyidce ; so that the question is, 
whether to associate them with the former, as Mr. Walker has done, or 
with the latter, as others have proposed; or, finally, whether we should 
not regard them as a separate family—and so they have been treated 
already. That Mr. Walker, in his solicitude not to multiply the number 
of the families, should have preferred one of the first two alternatives is 
well enough ; but we should have been better satisfied if he had joined 
them to the Cecidomyidce , rather than to the Mycetophilidce , as he has 
done. He has, probably, been determined to this by a consideration of 
the oral organs ; but we may observe that these present no essential dis¬ 
crepancy from the type of structure which prevails among the Cecidomyidce. 
By transferring those genera to this family we obtain more precise dis¬ 
tinctive characters for it as well as for the Mycetophilidce ; for the latter, 
tibiae without exception armed with spurs, and elongated coxse ;■—for the 
former, spurless tibiae and shorter coxae, besides other characters. How 
nearly Sciara approaches the Gall-gnats , even in its economy, is shown 
by the fact that the galls on the young shoots from the stumps of lime 
trees, mentioned by Mr. Walker, p. 130, are produced, not by a Cecido - 
myia , as he has supposed, but by the Sciara tilice. To prevent miscon¬ 
ception, it is right to add that in the genus Zygoneura , the tibia has a 
rudimental spur; so that this genus is most properly placed at the boun¬ 
dary line between the Mycetophilidce and Cecidomyidce , these families 
being taken in the sense which we have proposed. 
2. Cecidomyidce.—-I t must be a mere oversight that the author has 
written the name Cecidontyzidce , since, in every other instance, he has strictly 
adhered to the etymological form of the family name, as a derivative from 
