*COMMENT ~ Character notes. 
 
*CHARACTER NOTES 
#1. ~ (alternatively) is here used to indicate sometimes not
unreasonably included in or reduced to. 
#6. This character of obvious potential value having become
unfashionable in more recent times, the data have been compiled from
Walker (1851) and Verrall (1901) (in the case of the former by
converting from lines to millimetres). 
#10-14. Conspicuous differences in shapes of Hoverfly faces as viewed
in profile have loomed large in keys for 160 years, but the present
attempt at compilation suffers from the fact that characters adequate
for preparing comparative descriptions to professional standards have
never been competently defined. 
#30. Porrect: extending more or less horizontally, or ascending,
rather than drooping. 
#90-91:96:108. The literature pursued to date (see
\i{}References\i0{}) contains much woolly discussion of an
ecological kind on Hoverfly life histories, but a competent account
of larval morphology has yet to be seen. The present attempted
compilation of comparative data will be unreliable. 
