360 TABANID.E 



upturned, while the short black pubescence on the lower part has a few 

 inconspicuous pale hairs intermixed about the lower end of the middle 

 callus, and this middle callus is narrowly lancet-shaped ; the back of the 

 head bears a postocular row of tiny black bristles on the lower two-thirds, 

 beginning almost on the jowls but becoming sparse after the middle of the 

 head ; thorax browner and with more abundant depressed pale pubescence, 

 but the pubescence on the slightly ferruginous praealar calli and on the 

 scutellum almost wholly black, and the middle part of the mesopleur?e 

 with only a few inconspicuous black hairs ; abdomen brownish black, but 

 obscurely ferruginous about the basal corners and the sides of the 

 second and third segments, the middle triangles extending about half-way 

 up each segment but the bright golden pubescence on the triangle extending 

 on the second segment narrowly up to a fairly conspicuous tuft of similar 

 pubescence on the middle of the hindmargin of the basal segment; belly 

 dull yellowish ; legs with the tiny black bristles on the tibite more 

 conspicuous because of immaturity, and the middle tibiae with fine but 

 not unusually long pubescence ; at a first glance it would seem impossible 

 for this specimen and T. Msignatus to be varieties of one species. 



T. troincus in its female form hisignatus is not uncommon in Britain, 

 but the type form seems to be comparatively rare ; I have records of the 

 type form from Sussex, Kent, Surrey, Essex, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, 

 Worcestershire, Perth (Aberfoyle), and Sutherland (The Mound), but 

 mostly in solitary specimens ; but the form Msignatus is common in many 

 Southern woods, such as the N"ew Forest in Hampshire, and Plashet and 

 Abbotts Woods in Sussex, while I have records from Kent, Surrey, Essex, 

 Herts, Worcestershire, and Warwickshire, besides the remarkable small speci- 

 men from Herefordshire. It is apparently one of the earUest to appear 

 of the large Tabanidm as I have dates extending from May 19 to July 30. 

 It is recorded from North and Middle Europe and from Lake Baikal in 

 Asia, but is not known to occur in South Europe; the var. Msignatus 

 is apparently very rare on the Continent (except in France and Denmark), 

 but has occurred in Silesia and Eussia. 



Synionymy. — Very few of the old records can be trusted. The T. troincus of 

 Walker and other British entomologists was almost certainly T. distinguendus, Avhile 

 their T. signatus Panz. was probably 1\ troincus var. hisignatus. Several females in 

 Bigot's collection stood under the name of T. luridus, and it is practically certain 

 that even Loew included it under his T. luridais. Two quite normal females of the 

 type form in the Entomological Club collection were labelled T. rusticus with a 

 printed label which had been covered over with a MS. label montanus ; while four 

 males bore a similar printed label of luridus and a MS. label lateralis. Villeneuve 

 (Ann. Soc. Ent. Fr., 1905, 306) has stated that the types in Meigen's collection 

 consist of one female (which is T. apricus) and three males lielonging to two distinct 

 species • I have studied the specimens and agree with Villeneuve, except that I 

 think the third male may belong to the same species as the other two though it 

 appears to be distinct because of the different pose of the head ; I do not think 

 however that any of Meigen's specimens belong to the species now described. 

 Villeneuve distinguished the male of T. hisigiiatus in La Feaille des Jeunes 

 Naturalistes, xxxv., 59 (1905), as having the antennte entirely black, the palpi elongate 

 and cylindrical and fringed with long black hairs, the apiiearance and shape as in 

 T. borealis, and the abdomen colored as in the female ; he considered it might be 

 closely allied to T. nigrlcornis Zett. (which was unknown to him), but by no means 

 to T. tropicus any more than to T. luridus ; it is altogether with great reluctance 

 that I snik T. hisignatus as a mere variety as I am imjDressed by its abundance 

 in certain localities where T. t^'opicus appears to be absent, and its imicoloi'ous 



