THE KANSAS UNIVERSITY SCIENCE BULLETIN Vol. XV.] December, 1924. [No. 1. Contribution to a Monograph of the American Syrphidae from North of Mexico.* C. HOWARD CURRAN, Department of Entomology. INTRODUCTION. IN PRESENTING this contribution to a monograph of the North American Syrphidae it is realized that the subfamilies and genera dealt with in the present work have not been finally and fully considered. Undoubtedly many undescribed forms are at present in collections, while the territory covered by collectors has been ex-ceedingly small considering the fact that the slightest change in topographical conditions may often yield a fauna differing in large degree from the usual fauna of the general area. It is recognized that there is a great deal to be done from the taxonomist's stand-point alone, not to mention the almost untouched fields of biological and ecological research, which present not only a difficult study, but at the same time one which should prove of the greatest in-terest and attraction and furnish information invaluable to a bet-ter understanding of the specific and generic relationships. In this first part of the work the biological and ecological sides are but briefly dealt with, such being left for inclusion with the description of the genera and species. The object of the present work is to place the genera studied in such a position that additions to our fauna may be readily recog-nized and incorporated in the proposed complete monograph, the work for which has been under way for a number of years. It might be interesting to set forth here a brief historical sketch of the work which has been done on this family of Diptera up to • Submitted to the Department of Entomology and the faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Kansas in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masti-r of Science. (7)
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