372 TABANID^ 



mixed black and pale yellow long dense pubescence. Eyes clothed with 

 rather short very dense brownish pubescence (dark brown when viewed from 

 above) which becomes shorter towards the hindmargin, and only in some 

 lights appears paler on the lower part ; eyes touching for quite twice the 

 length of the frons ; facets (fig. 230) on all the prominent middle and 

 front part rather large, including all those against the junction of the eyes, and 

 only slightly diminishing on the front margin down to the level of the antennae, 

 but becoming distinctly smaller on the lower third of the eyes and on a rather 

 narrow zone running all up the hindmargin to almost the top, but the 

 change in size nowhere abrupt and the diameter of the 

 largest facets less than twice that of the smallest ; in life 

 the eyes have a narrow dark (almost black) band running 

 straight across from about the middle of the frons to 

 almost the hindmargin, and well below this is a broader 

 vaguer band starting very slightly below the antennse and 

 turning upwards as it approaches the hindmargin ; facets 

 above below and between these bands more reddish brown 

 than the darker brown ordinary facets ; the lower band is 

 in some lights a rich red brown, being darker than the 

 facets above and below it. Antennae mainly reddish 

 Fig. izo.—Therio'piectes Orange, but the basal joint and the end half of the third 

 distingitendus, joint darkened ; basal joint light greyish black, but rather 

 (J eye-facets, x 22. obscurely reddish beneath, and bearing dorsally several long- 

 black hairs and numerous short ones, but on the sides and 

 beneath with some moderate black hairs about the tip, and on the rest 

 .shorter hairs as on the upper side ; the basal joint barely extends cap-like 

 over the second joint; second joint reddish (sometimes obscurely) with a 

 rather dense circlet of short black bristly hairs round the tip, which are 

 longer below than above ; third joint reddish orange (sometimes blackish 

 dorsally and about the tip) but all the annulations after the basal one rather 

 dark brown ; dorsal hump near the base distinct but hardly pointed or 

 hooked and bearing some tiny black bristles, while usually there are some 

 tiny black bristles on the outer side of the segment near but not close to the 

 base. 



Thorax black, slightly shining, with very faint grey stripes and front part ; 

 the stripes are best detected when seen from behind, when they can be traced 

 on the front part as two rather narrow stripes very wide apart with perhaps a 

 middle stripe between, but the outer stripes are inclined to curve round in front 

 so as to join the broader grey humeri and side stripes, and the thorax grows 

 greyish about the suture ; the large praealar calli obviously though rather incon- 

 spicuously ferruginous. Pubescence composed of fairly abundant erect black 

 hairs which do not extend quite to the front part (where the hoUowed-out head 

 fits on), but intermixed with these are scattered sparse very depressed (almost 

 flattened) thin greyish hairs which become dense and more erect on the front 

 part where there are no black hairs and there are some long more erect 

 rather shaggy pale hairs on the humeri and also some others near the meso- 

 pleural suture, but all these hardly obscure the ground colour ; pleuriB with 

 dark sometimes almost black pubescence on most of the mesopleurae, but 

 with more conspicuous large tufts of yellow or grey hairs on the pteropleurse 

 and especially on the metapleurse, while the intermediate space bears greyish 

 yellow hairs. Scutellum black, slightly shining, but greyish on the disc, and 

 with pubescence similar to that on the thorax but with several longer 

 yellowish hairs intermixed with the black hairs towards the tip. 



Abdomen mainly bright brownish orange with a narrow interrupted 

 dorsal line and the tip black ; basal segment black at the base but with 

 the black colour narrowing to about one-third of the hindmargin, and 

 with the extreme sides black ; second segment with the middle eighth 

 (or less) black but not quite to the hindmargin ; third segment with 

 the middle tenth (or only a narrow line) black but also hardly to the 

 hindmargin, and Avirh its sides slightly blackened ; fourth segment 

 normally with the middle quarter (or thereabouts) and the sides more 

 extensively blackened, and often the intermediate space darker brownish 

 orange ; lifth and sixth segments black ; there are small not very con- 



