2. TABANUS 353 



sliallowly inflated for a short distance up the back of the eyes ; a band of black 

 pubescence extends from the face to beneath the eyes and then grows shorter 

 until it becomes a very short black ciliation about the middle of the back of 

 the eyes, but after that it again becomes a little longer up to the vertex ; jowls 

 and all round the mouth with a long whitish grey beard which extends nearly 

 half-way up the back of the head, and there are some longish pale grey 

 hairs on the upper part of the back of the head right behind the black 

 ciliation ; vertex very small, brown, hardly elevated, and bearing a sparse 

 tuft of moderately long black hairs which extend quite back to the occiput. 

 Palpi blackish grey ; last joint large and elongate oval but moderately 

 pointed at the tip and bearing long rather dense black hairs with a few grey 

 hairs intermixed ; basal joint with numerous unusually long whitish hairs on 

 its underside. Eyes clothed with rather long and dense light brownish grey 

 pubescence, and in life (according to Brauer) bright greenish with three 

 purple bands on the lower half, or else the lower part of the eyes purplish or 

 violet with three green red-margined bands ; facets large on all the middle 

 part and up to the junction of the eyes, but becoming gradually smaller 

 outside and beneath so that there is only a narrow outer zone of very small 

 facets on the upper part but a broader zone on the outer and lower parts 

 which extends to about a quarter the width of the eye ; the eyes touch for a 

 very long space. Antennae dull greyish black ; basal joint dilated and bearing 

 long conspicuous black bristly pubescence ; second joint with similar but 

 much shorter pubescence on the upper side though almost as long on the 

 under side ; third joint with only a small triangular dorsal hump near the 

 base, which bears a few very short black bristles. 



Thorax moderately shining black, bearing erect black pubescence on 

 the main portion of the disc with no pale hairs intermixed except over the 

 wing-base and on the back part of the postalar calli, but the pubescence on 

 the front part of the disc shorter, rather depressed, and light grey ; pleurae 

 with mainly dense shaggy grey pubescence but the large dense tuft on the 

 middle and back part of the mesopleura^ conspicuously black haired. 

 Scutellum also moderately shining black and bearing erect black pubescence. 



Abdomen moderately shining black, but the hindmargins of the second 

 to sixth segments bear at the middle a small shallow triangle of white hairs and 

 ■(at least on the second segment) these hairs stand on a greyish ground colour, 

 and in various lights (especially from behind) large grey side-flecks can be 

 traced nearer the sides of the segments ; the absolute hind corners of the 

 second to sixth segments also bear small whitish tufts and the upper margins 

 of the lateral genital plates bear a little whitish pubescence. Belly black, 

 with fringes of white hairs on the very narrowly white hindmargins of the 

 segments but with the other pubescence black. 



Legs wholly black ; front coxae with long pubescence which is greyish 

 about the base but black afterwards ; 

 femora with rather dense blackish 

 pubescence ; front femora beneath 

 for their whole length with a broad 

 bare dull black slightly channelled 

 space for the reception of the folded- 

 back tibiae, and the anterior margin 

 of this bare space bearing a dense 

 row of short bristly hairs ; middle 



tibiai with rather conspicuous longish ^^^ n^.-Thcrioplectes micans J . Right front 



pubescence and with two conspicuous tarsus, x 14. 



black spurs ; hind tibiae with dense 



but rather short pubescence ; front tarsi ivith from two to four remarkable 

 upstanding long bristly hairs (fig. 229) at the tip of each of the four basal 

 joints, last joint with moderate inconspicuous brownish grey hairs about the 

 end; there are a few "touch-hairs" beneath the basal joint of the front 

 tarsi and one at the tip of each of the next three joints. Pulvilli brown ; 

 claws black. 



Wings strongly greyish, but brownish black about the base and towards 

 the costa ; there is a small dark spot at the fork of the cubital vein, and a 

 dark cloud down the cross-vein at the end of the discal cell, while the stem 



