366 TABANID.E 



siderable amount of pale pubescence on the disc of the second, third, and 

 fourth abdominal segments where the ordinary grey flecks appear, and 

 also has the apical half of the front tibiae blackish, the pubescence behind 

 the middle femora mainly pale, the belly with more pale pubescence on the 

 disc and the hindmarginal fringes wider and more conspicuous while the 

 middle of the hindmargin of the fourth segment is blackish. Another 

 specimen (Loo Bridge, July 8, 1901) has the pubescence Ijehind the front 

 femora to a considerable extent pale, and the pubescence on the belly 

 nearly all pale. I think the eye-facets of the male vary a little in size, 

 and that in some specimens the enlarged facets are rather larger than in 

 others, and that the contrast between the large and small facets is some- 

 times more defined, while the facets against the eye-touching part are not 

 smaller than those on the middle of the eye. 



T. montanus is abundant in some mountainous districts and has been 

 taken by Colonel Yerbury in large numbers at Eannoch, Aviemore, Brodie, 

 Nethy Bridge, and other Scotch locahties, and in Ireland at Loo Bridge, 

 Kenmare, Glengariff, etc. I have other records from Loch Duich, 

 Braemar, Inveishin, Glen Affrick, Kingussie, and Shiel House in Eoss-shire, 

 but I have no Lowland or English records. It is rather remarkable 

 that Colonel Yerbury at Loo Bridge on July 6, 1901, and Mr W. A. Vice 

 at Shiel House in Eoss-shire were both impressed by the number of males 

 being about equal to that of the females, as male Tcibanidce are usually 

 l)ut little seen. The dates known to me only extend from July 6 to 

 August 6, thoutrh I l)elieve Mr Vice took it in June. It is recorded from 

 extreme ISTorth Europe to Austria. 



Si/nonymy. — A male under the name of 1\ montanus in Kowarz's collection from 

 Asch in Bohemia taken in May 1868 agrees very well with the smaller British forms, 

 but is slightly larger and has redder antennae than any British form. A worn 

 female sent by me to Loew about 1874 was returned as T. horealis, but I have no 

 doubt that this was a mistake caused by its bad condition. Two females of the 

 form with the largest amount of reddish coloring on the abdomen stood in the 

 Entomological Club collection under the label of tropicus. Villeneuve has 

 suggested (Ann. Soc. Ent. Fr., 1905, 307) that T.fulvicornis Meig. is a variety of T. 

 montanus, but I have examined the specimens in Meigen's collection and 

 consider them quite distinct as they have a conspicuous black tuft of hairs at the 

 top of the vertex ; the specimens however belong to Therioplectes and consequently 

 are not T. grcecus, but there is a strong probability that they do not represent the 

 sjiecies described by Meigen as he does not seem to have known that himself, 



T. borealis Meig. was recorded as British by Mr E. E. Austen in British Blood- 

 sucking Flies, p. 38 (1906) from a male taken by Mr W. R. O. Grant at iilen Avon 

 in Banffshire on June 8, 1893. I have closely studied this specimen and am 

 unalJe to distinguish it specifically from several of my specimens of 7'. montanus ; 

 unfortunately I do not possess a continental male of T. horealis, though I possess 

 some females which are abundantly distinct from T. montanus. The facets on the 

 upper two-thirds of the eyes are certainly larger than those on the lower part, but 

 not more so than in some of my males of T. montanus, and I do not notice in these 

 latter that the facets become smaller against the touching part of the eyes (as Brauer 

 says they do) ; moreover I do not consider the change from large to small facets 

 at all abrupt in the Glen Avon specimen. The palpi seem to have a darker ground 

 colour ; the antennae are only reddish near the base of the third joint (as is 

 frequently the case in T. montanus) ; the abdomen has the reddish side-markings on 

 the second and thircl segments rather dull and npt extending to the fourth segment, 

 while there is no light coloring on the hindmargins except such as is caused by pale 

 pubescence ; the belly has a broad continuous black middle stripe, while Brauer 



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