+ 
— 
REPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST 1907 227 
M® attached to M!* by the cross vein, and often remarkably 
simulating a real M?. After this shift, it may fuse with M1!” 
as shown at , or its base may recede to simulate a deepening 
tork, as in Mesocyphona |pl. 23, fig. 3] as at o, and the base of 
Mt“ may even be deflected upward to enter more strongly into 
the composition of the cord as at p, Amphineura [pl. 9, fig. 6]. 
There are some minor shifts of parts that occur sporadically; 
the foregoing are the general tendencies. Cell 1st M? is shifted very 
far inward in Lechria [pl. 9, fig. 5], very far outward in Oropeza 
[pleiO, tes 2 wandwearatropeza (pla 2s) fe 4) The hind margin 
of the wing is beautifully scalloped in Dapanoptera [pl. 28, fig. 3]. 
There is a striking decurvature of veins at the tip in Libnotes 
[pl. 28, fig. 5, ©]. The base of the radial sector is strongly bent 
in Paratropeza [pl. 21, fig. 4], and more sharply, and with a 
most curious compensatory adjustment of R* in Goniodineura, 
[pl. 28, fig. 2]. And there are endless other less striking peculi- 
arities of venation occurring here and there. Unlike the higher 
families of Diptera, no single major trend of venational speciali- 
zation is firmly established in the Tipulidae. There appear to 
be grotesque specializations as well as useful ones, and the 
best flyers are certainly not always those that have departed 
most widely from primitive conditions. 
Recently Professor Williston, while engaged in a well meant 
effort to rehabilitate the outgrown systems of nomenclature with 
which dipterologists have wrought confusion for several genera- 
tions, has cited some wholly imaginary difficulties connected with 
Professor Comstock’s interpretation of the venation of the Diptera. 
He thinks it may be the cubital vein that is three branched typically 
in Diptera, instead of the median; but he gives no evidence tending 
to support such belief, and it is negatived by the existence of a 
distinct m-cu cross vein in many generalized Diptera [see pl. 4-7] 
and by the conditions found in other related orders. He further 
says that he does not at all agree with Comstock in the opinion that 
when the branches of the median vein undergo reduction, it is vein 
M! that is longest preserved; but he gives not a scrap of evidence 
* Williston, S. W. Some common errors in the nomenclature of the dip- 
terous wing. Psyche. 1906. 13:154-57. The reader is recommended to read 
this article, and also the remarks of Osten Sacken given by Skuse in Linn. 
Soc. N. S. Wales. Proc. (2) 5:596-98, beginning with the words on p. 596 
“Tt is a sore subject in Dipterology.” Then if he desire further sensations, 
let him consult Heyden’s illustrations of three Loewian systems for as many 
different dipterous families given in Paleontographica, vol. 17, or let him 
read the section on venation in almost any work on systematic dipterology. 
