i68 The Ohio Naturalist. [Vol. II, No. 2^ 



During the time the female is ovipositing the male is often 

 sitting near by on the foliage. At Georgesville, Ohio, June 4th, 

 I observed C. moechus ovipositing on foliage overhanging a mill- 

 race ; soon after specimens of the male sex were observed resting 

 on the upper leaves of the same plant on which females were 

 ovipositing. In a few minutes collecting, a dozen or more speci- 

 mens of each of the sexes were procured. The only males of C. 

 indus I have ever taken were procured at Columbus, on the 

 border of a small pond, where the females were ovipositing. 



The sexes of many species of Tabanus often alight on the bare 

 ground of paths or roads that run through or along woods. At 

 Cincinnati. June loth, in company with Mr. Dury, we procured 

 large numbers of the sexes of different species resting on some 

 furrows that were plowed around a woods to prevent the spread 

 of fire. We also took the same species resting in paths and roads 

 that ran through the woods. Some of these same species were 

 also taken from low-growing foliage in sunn\' places among the 

 trees. At Medina, Ohio, males and females of T. vivax and 

 trimaculatus were taken while resting in a road that ran through 

 a dense woods. 



One of the best places I have ever found to get the sexes of 

 Chrysops and Tabanus is in the tall grass that skirts the marshes 

 of Sandusky Bay. This grass is the Phragmites ot botanists and 

 grows to a great heighth by July ist. On July 6th, at Black 

 Channel, when the wind was high I went into a patch of this 

 grass that was so dense that I could not use a net to advantage. 

 Here I saw an abundance of flies and found that by approaching 

 them very slowly I could readily pick the specimens off with my 

 fingers. The male and female of T. stygius, nivosus, C. sestuans 

 and flavidus and the male of T. affinis and bicolor were taken in 

 this way. I found that this same species of grass afforded excel- 

 lent collecting wherever found, but most material was procured 

 when the wind was high. On the same date and near the same 

 place the male of C. flavidus was taken from the flowers of the 

 common spatter-dock, and this and sestuans were procured by 

 sweeping in the adjacent low-growing herbage. R. C. Osburn 

 informs me that he has had excellent success in collecting Tabanids 

 from tall grass near water in his experience. 



Tabanus sulcifrons Macq. is an abundant species in northern 

 Ohio during the latter part of July and all of August. So com- 

 mon that by actual count twenty-eight specimens were taken 

 from a cow in ten minutes, while a few that alighted on the ani- 

 mal during that time were not procured. August ist of the 

 present 3'ear I was at Hinckley, Medina County, and spent the 

 day taking observations on this species. In the morning about 

 nine o'clock I went to the border of a woods where I had often 

 observed the species before. Here males and females were found 



