RES Handbook Vol 9 Part 1. Diptera - 1. Introduction and key to families

HITHERTO the only key to the families of British Diptera has been that given in Wingate's Durham Diptera (1906), which is still widely used. If a more modern work is wanted one has to consult Lindner's Die Fliegender Palaearktischen Region (1924- ), the various volumes of the Faune de France (1923- ), Lundbeck's Diptera Danica (1907-27), or Curran's North American Diptera (1934). Of these Lundbeck is the favourite, because it is not only work of first quality, but it is written in English. These works are expensive to buy, and not very accessible in libraries, and all suffer from the disadvantage that they cover a much wider fauna than the British, to which they give only slight attention. Other works, such as Verrall's British Flies, and many papers by Verrall, Collin, Edwards, Wainwright, Richards and others, deal exhaustively with smaller or larger groups, but offer little help to the beginner.