REVIEWS. 
81 
to all the genera of the same family, and, therefore, of right belonging to 
the family character. As the space does not permit us to go into a 
detailed examination of all the genera, we must confine ourselves to a 
notice of the most obvious corrections necessary in a portion of them, 
along with some criticisms on the analytic tables of the genera. 
In regard to the latter of these, the first remark which occurs is on the 
distinction of the genera Oxyceka and Clitellaria, by the antennas, 
eight-jointed in the former, and nine-jointed in the latter genus; when the 
more obvious character of the lateral spines of the thorax in Clitellaria 
would have afforded a better criterion. 
Beris and Acuna.— In both these genera, the abdomen is evidently 
composed of seven segments. The want of spurs to the tibiae is a cha¬ 
racter belonging to the whole of the family Stratiomydee. “Head de¬ 
pressed,” does not express the true form of that part; and, to prevent 
mistakes, it would have been well to have mentioned that the number of 
the spines of the scutellum is very liable to vary. The description of the 
wing-veins of Actina requires correction: how is it that the third, fourth, 
fifth, and sixth posterior areolets are said to be open to the border; for 
where can we find six posterior areolets in this genus ? Again, that the 
fourth and sixth are more or less united is wrong; since the areolets 
intended are in immediate juxtaposition. 
Stratiomys. —Contrary to prevailing usage, the author has united here 
the species which are generally divided between the genera Stratiomys 
(Hoplomyia Zett.) and Odontomyia. The species of these two genera are, 
indeed, not very distant from each other; yet it would have been better to 
have kept them separate, as there is a marked difference in their general 
aspect, and there is none, of the British species at least, whose position 
could be doubtful between them; but chiefly because a more precise defi¬ 
nition of the genera might thus have been arrived at. The phrase “ an¬ 
tennas stylatae” is not correctly applicable to the species of Stratiomys in the 
restricted sense: of the six joints composing the flagellum, the first three 
or four are longer, the following ones much shorter, the last two often not 
perfectly distinct from one another. In the species of Odontomyia the 
terminal joints generally form an acute oblique style, although in some this 
is very obtuse, and in that case much less defined. It is, perhaps, not a 
fault in the character that the abdomen is described as of five segments ; 
though there are actually seven; the sixth and seventh are very minute, 
and usually retracted within the fifth, which is the case also with the allied 
genera. 
