336 TABANID.E 



middle part ; pubescence sloping, not dense, and pale except for some erect 

 black hairs under the seventh segment and to a small extent (though less 

 erect) on the sixth segment. 



Legs colored as in the male. Pubescence very much less ; front coxae with 

 long fine pale pubescence which becomes usually but sometimes only slightly 

 bristly and black at the tip ; front femora with moderate pale pubescence 

 beneath which grows black behind towards the tip ; posterior femora with 

 slight pale pubescence beneath which becomes crowded, bristly, and black 

 about the tip ; posterior tibiae with black pubescence which is rather long 

 dorsally on the middle dark ring ; " touch-hairs " on the front tarsi and tip of 

 tibiae as in the male. 



Wings slightly less dark, but with similar hyaline markings. Squamae and 

 halteres as in the male, but the knob of the halteres usually more whitish on 

 the top. 



Length about 9 mm., but varying from 7 mm. to 10-5 mm. 



This species is very closely allied to the others, but may be distinguished 

 from H. crassicornis by its more muddily colored wings, by its less in- 

 crassate basal joint of the antennte in both sexes (though this joint may be 

 as incrassate in the male of H. pluvicdis as in the female of H. crassieornis) 

 which is distinctly dusted with light grey about its base, by its longer 

 antenna?, by the more separated pale ocelli in the discal cell, by the 

 ferruginous markings about the sides of the abdomen in the male, and by 

 its less blackish hue in general; H. ifalica has the antennie of the 

 female still longer, the basal joint being unusually long and not at all 

 incrassate and all covered with light grey dust, while it is a more elongate 

 species with more washed-out marmoration of the wings, more fer- 

 ruginous femora, and in the male with pale tawny pubescence behind the 

 vertex. H. Bigoti '? is not yet well distinguished, but has the femora of the 

 female luteous and the abdominal markings far more defined even on the 

 basal segment. There may be other insufficiently distinguished European 

 species, but much more critical study is necessary. H. pluvialis varies a 

 little in size, and in intensity of markings on the thorax, abdomen, and 

 legs. 



H. pluvialis is far too common all over the British Isles, as the bite of 

 the female is very annoying and, to many people, very painful and per- 

 sistent ; I have mentioned under the generic notes that the effects of the 

 bitle last with me just a week. There are numerous records from Ivy- 

 bridge in Devonshire to Inchnadamph in Sutherland and to Orkney, and 

 even to St Kilda, while Colonel Yerbury has taken it in many Irish 

 localities ; my dates extend from May 28 to September 16. Unless it 

 has been confused with its allies it occurs over all Europe and North 

 Africa and has_been recorded from North America (possibly in mistake 

 for H. crassicornis) and from South America, but without a more critical 

 knowledge of the species this latter and several of the European records 

 re(xuire confirmation as I am inclined to believe that there are numerous 

 closely allied undistinguished species ; even of the six representatives of 

 the male of H. pluvialis in Kowarz's collection four are smaller and have 

 the head less wide than the other two. In Scotland the flies are 

 commonly called Clegs or Klegs, and Curtis says they are called Stouts 

 in Dorsetshire. 



Synonymy. — I have little to note about this except to say that it is only in recent 

 years that some of the allied species have been satisfactorily distinguished ; there 

 can however be no doubt about Meigen's interpretation of the species in 1805. Duncan 



