TABANUS. 53 



Head rather broad ; front yellowish-grey, rather broad, slightly convergent anteriorly ; 

 frontal callosity dark brown, shining ; an oblong blackish spot in the middle of the 

 front and another more rounded one on the vertex ; face whitish, with whitish hair ; palpi 

 rather short and stout, yellowish- white, with white pile, mixed with some black. Antennge 

 yellowish-red, the scapus with some black hairs ; third joint rather short, with an obtuse, 

 but little projecting upper angle ; annulate portion as long as the basal, stout. Thorax 

 brownish-grey, beset with scattered, short, white hairs (often rubbed off) which do not con- 

 ceal the ground-colour; with three distinct longitudinal yellowish-white lines, and some 

 (less distinct) lateral whitish marks above the root of the wings; pleurae greyish-white with 

 white hair. Halteres yellowish. Legs yellowish ; femora with soft, white pile ; distal half 

 of the front tibiae and the front tarsi dark brown ; four posterior tarsi infuscated from the 

 tip of the first joint. Abdomen of a pale reddish-yellow, variegated with brown as follows : 

 on the first segment an undulating brown cross-band, interrupted under the scutellum ; 

 on the second and third segments, at the base, a brown cross-band, deeply excised in the 

 middle, and behind it a transverse row of four round brown spots, the middle pair of which 

 are more or less distinctly connected with the basal cross-band ; segments 4-6 show 

 the same row of four brown spots, but no brown cross-band at the base ; in some speci- 

 mens the spots on segments 5 and 6 become coalescent by pairs, thus forming an oblong 

 spot with raised up ends on each side ; sometimes this takes place even on the third and 

 fourth segments. All the segments are clothed with an appressed yellowish pubescence, 

 especially dense along the middle line and on the hind margins, but easily rubbed off. 

 Venter pale reddish-yellow, sometimes darker towards the tip. Wings, including the 

 costal cells, hyaline ; stigma yellowish-brown ; fork of third vein with a stump ; first 

 posterior cell broadly open, the second coarctate at the base. Three females. 



It is very probable that the colouring of the abdomen is subject to even more variation 

 than indicated in my description. As the lateral brown spots coalesce by pairs, without 

 encroaching upon the middle of the segment, the prevalence of the brown would tend 

 to render this central portion more conspicuous, and the colouring of the abdomen would 

 finally appear as a longitudinal central pale-coloured stripe, with alternate brown and 

 pale cross-bands on each side. 



T. cribellum, apart from the colouring of the abdomen, will be easily recognized by the 

 structure of the antennae, with their short and comparatively broad third joint, and its 

 stout and blunt annulate portion. I believe that this species must be closely related to 

 T. pumilus. Macq. Dipt. Ex. i. 1, p. 146 (comp. my Prodr. of Tabanidse, p. 448), from 

 the Southern United States, but I have no specimen of the latter for comparison. 

 T. stigma, Fabr., Wiedem. Auss. zweifl. Ins. i. p. 180 (Mus. Vienna), is also a closely 

 allied species, but easily distinguished by the spots on its wings and the black end of 

 the antennae. Tabanus completus, Walker, List &c. i. p. 185 (St. Thomas), of which 

 there is a single specimen in the British Museum, is very probably identical with 

 T. stigma. 



