2. TABANUS 369 



greyish white hairs on the space between the middle and lower calli, and 

 usually with numerous pale grey hairs interspersed among the black hairs ; 

 most of this pubescence slopes forwards but the usually exclusively black 

 less dense hairs on the top third are distinctly longer and more erect and 

 practically form a tuft behind the ocelli ; frontal triangle polished slmiing 

 black, sometimes shining chestnut on its middle part, but Avith a yellowish 

 grey marginal front line undulating above the antennal pits ; face and side- 

 cheeks whitish grey, though the upper part of the side-cheeks is usually more 

 yellowish grey, and clothed with abundant long pubescence which is white 

 all over except on the upper part of the side-cheeks where there is a largish 

 patch of black hairs (very rarely quite absent) ; jowls and just the lower 

 part of the back of the head also clothed with similar whitish pubescence 

 of which the yellower pubescence of the prothorax seems to form a part ; 

 postocular rim bare and whitish, while just behind it is a greyish white 

 rather short ciliation which becomes rather longer on the upper quarter, and 

 slightly longer still (though inconspicuous) behind the black hairs of the 

 vertex ; actual back of the head greyish white ; ocellar tubercle obvious. 

 Palpi yellowish with a faint brownish tinge, bearing numerous short depressed 

 black bristles on about the apical half, but with more abundant depressed 

 short thin white hairs intermingled with the black bristles on the rest 

 and with much longer whitish pubescence beneath near the base ; basal 

 joint with long whitish pubescence ; second joint about three times as long 

 as its broadest part, fairly stout near the base, but equally tapering thence 

 to a sharp point, though from other points of view the inner side curves 

 sharply inwards just after the middle. Eyes with very dense dark brown 

 pubescence, longer than in the allied species but shorter than in the male 

 and becoming sparse towards the hindmargin ; even in dried specimens three 

 purple bars not wide apart of which the middle one is level with the loAver 

 part of the lower callus can sometimes be traced. Antennae almost as in 

 the male, but the pubescence on the basal joint much shorter, and the 

 short bristles on the upper side all black, though the longer hairs are con- 

 siderably or nearly all whitish ; basal joint almost covered with conspicuous 

 pale grey dust ; third joint more stoutly built and its dorsal hump more 

 pronounced, but varying in colour from practically all blackish to all (except 

 the stout jointed style) dull reddish. 



Thorax similar to that of the male but slightly greyer and with four faint 

 grey stripes ; prsealar calli inclined to be brownish ; pubescence including 

 more pale grey hairs, which form a tuft above the wing-base and on the back 

 part of the postalar calli. Scutellum with rather notable long pale pubescence 

 about the margin. 



Abdomen also conspicuously shining but broader and more ovate than in 

 the male, and with the reddish orange side-markings usually more restricted, 

 and with traces of steeply sloping side-flecks ; ground colour more greyish 

 black, and in the specimens whicTi have the most extended reddish orange 

 coloring the outer thirds of the second and third segments are reddish orange 

 except for a rather large blackish indefinite spot on each side of the third 

 segment which extends triangularly nearly half-way inwards across the 

 reddish coloring, and for the trace of a dark spot on each side of the second 

 segment ; the more usual extent of the reddish orange or dull ferruginous 

 coloring includes the outer thirds of the second segment except that the 

 middle part of the sides is blackish, while the inner margin of each ferruginous 

 part runs out on to the dorsal black stripe as a pale greyside-fleck which 

 slopes outwards to the hindmargin and is rendered more conspicuous through 

 the pale grey pubescence on it, and the second segment has the ferruginous 

 coloring limited to an arc on the foremargin near each side and a spot nearer 

 the middle of the segment (well remote from fore or hind margin) from 

 which a fainter sloping side-fleck is indicated by less conspicuous pale grey 

 pubescence ; and in the darkest specimens the ferruginous coloring is reduced 

 to the basal corners of the second segment and to two spots which indicate 

 the ends of the side-flecks, and I have seen a specimen in which even these 

 markings are very faint ; hindmargins of segments grey with a slight 

 ferruginous tint at the actual margin, and with a small triangular patch of 

 pale pubescence on the middle of each which may rest on a slightly grey 



2 A 



