358 TABANID.E 



joint blackish grey and bearing dense black bristly hairs which are however 

 longer and less bristly beneath and have a few pale hairs intermixed there ; 

 second joint reddish or with at least a reddish tinge, and with a circlet of 

 dense black bristles about the tip which are very short on the upper side 

 but rather longer on the under side ; thii'd joint reddish with its large basal 

 segment usually dai"kened dorsally about its middle, and with the thick jointed 

 style darkened, or even entirely blackened ; hump moderate but well formed 

 and bearing minute black bristles, depth of the segment at the hump fully 

 two-thirds its length. 



Thorax similar to that of the male, but with more pale hairs above 

 the wing-base, on the disc, and on the end part of the scutellum ; pleurae 

 with more long grey pubescence on the lower back part of the mesopleurse. 



Abdomen (in the type form) broad and rather ovate, with the brownish red 

 coloring more restricted to the side thirds of the second segment and just 

 the sides of the basal segment, and extending on that segment rather vaguely 

 and narrowly along about the outer thirds of the hindmargin ; middle 

 row of dorsal whitish spots more conspicuous, extending distinctly to the 

 fourth segment and faintly to the fifth and sixth segments : there are faint 

 traces of large grey side-flecks on the third (and possibly the fourth) segment, 

 but no pale hindmarginal hems to the segments, though the pale fringes exist 

 on the outer thirds of the hindmargins. Belly either as in the male or with 

 a continuous indefinite broad blackish middle stripe. 



Legs very similar to those of the male in coloring and in the 

 pubescence of the middle tibiae, but the hind tibiae without the remarkaljle 

 long delicate antero-ventral ciliation. 



Wings as in the male. Squamre more whitish glassy grey. Halteres with 

 reddish brown knobs. 



Length about 15 mm. 



Var. ? hisi(j7iatus Jaennicke. This variety of the female which is 

 termed melanochroitic by Brauer appears to be very distinct, but I accept 

 Brauer's statement that it is only a variety of T. tropiciis, as it mainly 

 agrees with the typical form of that species except in the blacker colour 

 of the abdomen and in the more whitish grey colour of the head and its 

 pubescence. Frontal stripe more equal in width from top to bottom in 

 eleven out of twelve specimens in my collection, and with the middle 

 callus more sharply defined as a scarcely widened shining black line 

 extending up from the lower callus ; pubescence sometimes with a few 

 whitish hairs intermixed. Pubescence on the jowls and all about and 

 behind the mouth whitish grey, and the postocular ciliation almost 

 whitish grey; frontal triangle without any tinge of yellow. Abdomen 

 with the reddish coloring sometimes quite absent, but when present 

 variable in amount but never conspicuous and usually reduced to a 

 roundish sj)ot near the basal corners of the second segment (on about the 

 upper half of the segment) and a slight indication of red on the adjoining 

 part of the hindmargin of the basal segment, but the second segment bears 

 three whitish grey triangles of pubescence extending up quite two-thirds 

 of the segment, as there is the usual middle one on the hindmargin and 

 two larger vigbt-angled triangles (with the sloping side outwards) which 

 form the usual tabanoid side-flecks ; these conspicuous side-flecks are 

 often obscurely rufous all about their upper part and sometimes the 

 whitish grey pubescence on them runs away into the whitish pubescence 

 of the hindmargin, so that it extends right to the sidenuirgins or even 

 covers all the second segment except a pair of spots which adjoin the 

 middle triangle; in perfect specimens three similar but snuiller and 

 less conspicuous triangles exist on the third segment, extending about 



