436 C- R- OSTEN SACIvEN'S PRODROME 



facets of the eye ; they are more brownish in color, the abdomen especially ; each abdomi- 

 nal triangle has a dark spot at its apex, the lateral margins of the segments, anteriorly, are 

 also marked with black, etc. Length, female, 18-22 mm ; the average about 20 mm. ; male, 

 20 mm. 



Two well preserved females from Kentucky (F. G. Sanborn) are still darker in coloring ; the 

 face and pleura3, with the hairs upon them, are more yellowish ; the abdomen is of a bright 

 reddish fulvous ; in the middle of the anterior margin of each segment there is a black 

 spot, small on the second, much larger on the following segments, where it is bilobed ; the 

 white triangles are replaced by ill-defined yellowish ones, merging into the yellowish hind 

 margin of segments; the sides of the abdomen are almost uniformly reddish fulvous, with 

 no yellow spots and only vestiges of black ones ; wings strongly tinged with brown, darker 

 than in the preceding variety ; first posterior cell very much coarctate. Length, 21 mm. 



I am inclined to think that T. abdominalis is a very variable species, and that all these 

 forms are but varieties of the same species. At the same time I acknowledge that the 

 coincidence of a closed first posterior cell with a narrower front, as I find it in three speci- 

 mens, cannot be easily explained away, without other facts to invaUdate its importance. 



7. Tabanus tectus n. sp. 



Female. Face pale yellowish gray, hams on the cheeks of the same color; palpi reddish 

 brown, closely beset with short, black hair ; front yellowish gra}^, with a brownish shade in 

 the middle, moderately broad ; callosity dark brown, or reddish brown, somewhat convex ; 

 the line above it elongate spindle-shaped, sometimes forming a distinctly elevated ridge ; 

 two first antennal joints black, or nearly so, the third red, annulate portion black ; the 

 narrow portion which precedes it is sometimes more or less brownish ; ujjper angle project- 

 ing, nearly rectangular. Thorax brownish, with alternating brownish stripes and narrower 

 whitish lines, and clothed with a yellowish gray pollen ; pleuras yellowish gray, slightly 

 reddish in the middle ; this reddish region has some black pile upon it ; a fringe of black 

 pile before the root of the wings. Abdomen yellowish brown, with a yellowish spot on the 

 first segment, and yellowish white triangles on segments two to five ; those on segments 

 two, three and four, in well preserved specimens, are rather large ; that on segment five is 

 small and narrow ; no trace of white on the following segments ; a more or less distinct 

 blackish spot on the apex of one or two of the anterior triangles ; hind margins of the seg- 

 ments whitish yellow, with a golden yellow fringe of hairs, expanding laterally ; on each 

 side the anterior corners of the segments are more or less darkened ; towards the tip the 

 abdomen is nearly brownish and somewhat compressed laterally, so as to become slightly 

 roof-shaped; venter reddish brown, or brownish red; hind margins of segments j^ellowish, 

 beset with golden yellow hair. Legs brown ; front legs darker ; all the tibiaj somewhat 

 yellowish white at the base. Wings with a distinct brownish tinge ; crossveins at the end 

 of the discal cell, and bifurcation of third vein, distinctly clouded with brown ; crossveins 

 at the base of the two last posterior cells also somewhat clouded ; first posterior cell dis- 

 tinctly coarctate. 



Male. The upper part of the head is much smaller than in T. abdominalis (in the vari- 

 ety, at least, with the open posterior cell) ; hence, the dividing line between the large and 

 small facets lies much higher here, nearly in the middle of the eye, instead of below the 



