92 



a large chrome-yellow or sulphur-yellow patch on each side of the 

 abdomen, renders it easily recognisable ; unfortunately in the figure 

 these patches are largely obscured owing to the wings having been 

 drawn in the resting position. The range of Tahanus pluto, which, 

 under the name Tahanus leucaspis, was re-described by Van der 

 Wulp from a specimen from the Gold Coast, extends, so far as our 

 present knowledge goes, from Sierra Leone to Portuguese Congo 

 and Uganda. The following are the data as to locality, etc., with 

 reference to the ten females in the Museum Collection. — Sierra 

 Leone : (type) precise locality unknown, 1838 [Rev. D. F. Morgan). 

 Liberia : collected on coast during surveying cruise of H.M.S. 

 Mutine, 1908 {Surgeon A. McCloy, R.N.). Northern Nigeria : 

 Benue River, August, 1907 (J. -Sraw(Z). Congo Free State : Kisantu, 

 Cataract Region, R. Congo, November 26th, 1903, and Leopold- 

 ville, January 25th, 1904 {Drs. Button, Todd, and Christy). Portu- 

 guese Congo : San Salvador, 1909 {Dr. M. Gamble). Uganda : 

 Busoga, September 17th, 1903 {Colonel Sir David Bruce, C.B., 

 R.A.M.C., F.R.S.). In French Congo, where it is said to attack 

 human beings on the rivers, T. pluto was collected at Brazzaville, 

 on September 20th, 1907, by M. E. Roubaud, while at the end of 

 December a specimen was taken on a horse suffering from 

 trypanosomiasis . * 



Tabanus ruficrus, Palisot de Beauvois. 



Insectes Recueillis en Afrique et en Amerique, dans les Royaumes 

 d'Oware et de Benin, A Saint-Domingue et dans les Etats- 

 Unis, pendant les Annees 1786-1797, p. 55, Dieptres, PL I., 

 fig. 3 (1805-1821). 



Plate VII., fig. 48. 



The range of this locally common West African species extends at 

 least from the Sierra Leone Protectorate to the Congo Free State. 

 The localities, etc., of the seventeen females in the National Collection 



* Cf. Surcoiif and Roubaud, Bulletin du Mtistum National d'Hiatoire Naturelle 

 Ann^e 1908, No. 5, p. 221 (Paris, 1908). 



