AN EXTRAORDINARY NEW MARITIME FLY

Abstract

THERE have been established recently two new families of flies, to which I have to add a third. In the case of two of these three new families the members show great divergence from the usual dipterous condition. The three genera of Wandolleck's new family, Stethopathidae, are wingless and are without halteres. The thorax is greatly reduced and the compound eyes are feebly developed. The mouth-parts are of the general sort possessed by the Nematocera, i.e., a short lip-like labium without pseudo-tracheae, a distinct labrum, and a hypopharynx, but no mandibles nor maxillar lobes. Coquillet's new family, the Stenoxenidae, established for a single female fly, presents no such extraordinary characters as the Stethopathidae. The shape and structure of the head, body, and legs, and the unusual development of the first antennal joint appear to indicate its nearest approach to the genus Ceratopogon of the Chironomidae; but the venation as well as the general appearance of the insect is very different from anything now located in that family (Coquillet). There has come into my hands a number of specimens, 153 in all, of a fly which must prove of unusual interest to zoologists and entomologists, both because of its peculiar habitat and of its extraordinary structural condition. This new fly can certainly not be ascribed to any known dipterous family; its affinities can only be determined in the most general way. I feel constrained to establish for it a new family, which may be called the Eretmopteridae. The 153 specimens of the new form, I39 males and 13 females, and i female pupa, were collected on Dec. 27, 1898,