2. TABANUS 379 



Thorax blacker than in T. di sting imidus and with pale grey instead of 

 brownish yellow pubescence ; outstanding black pubescence between the 

 humeri and the wing-base more conspicuous ; prtealar calli not at all 

 ferruginous ; pleurae with apparently all whitish grey pubescence, the few 

 sparse black hairs intermingled on the mesopleurje being very inconspicuous. 



Abdomen with no reddish coloring on the fourth segment and without the 

 ubiquitous soft-tinted yellow pubescence of T. distinguendus, but with a few 

 black hairs on the foremargin of the second segment not far from the basal 

 corners, and with a large number of black hairs near the sides of the third 

 segment; the pale hindmarginal fringes less continuous and less con- 

 spicuous and the middle triangles smaller ; the black dorsal line more 

 broadly and determinately black and widening out a little on the hindmargin 

 of the third segment ; when viewed laterally the fourth segment is all blackish 

 except for a very indistinct ferruginous sidemargin. Belly with usually the 

 fourth and sometimes the third segment consideraljly obscured, and often 

 with a few longer erect black hairs on the middle part of the fifth and sixth 

 segments though not nearly so many nor so conspicuous as on the seventh 

 segment. 



Legs almost as in the female of 7\ distinguendus, but with longer 

 jiubescence on the middle tibiae which forms a rather long delicate dorsal 

 ciliation much more conspicuous than in 1\ di sting ueTulus but not quite so 

 conspicuous as in T, tropicus. 



Wings and halteres as in T. distinguendus, but the squamae more whitish. 



Length about 14 mm. 



This species is very closely allied to T. distinrjucndus, and also in 

 many ways to T. tropicus; it is however in both sexes a slightly smaller 

 and more sharply marked species than either of them. The male may 

 be known from T. distinguendus by the larger front eye-facets, the longer 

 paler pubescence on the eyes, the longer sidemarginal pubescence on the 

 abdomen, and the presence of black pubescence on the fourth and fifth 

 ventral segments. The female has no reddish orange markings on the 

 fourth abdominal segment, and has some black pubescence on the third 

 segment in contrast to the ubiquitous soft yellow pubescence of T. distin- 

 guendus. T. ti'oinciis is a larger broader insect with far less orange 

 abdominal markings, and with longer and more abundant ciliation on the 

 middle tibige. The female of T. solstitialis has long been known to me, 

 but I had not seen a satisfactory English male until Dr J. H. Wood sent 

 me a male and a female in October 1907 which had been taken at the Leech 

 Pool in Herefordshire on July 31, 1901; the male seems to differ from 

 an old (probably) English specimen which I previously possessed and 

 which agrees with continental specimens in having the large facets 

 on the eyes even larger still and more abruptly contrasted with the 

 small facets, the black dorsal stripe on the abdomen occupying only a 

 twelfth of the second segment and still less on the third segment until it 

 widens out to the dorsal stripe on the fourth segment which becomes as 

 much as a third of the segment against the hindmargin, and in having no 

 thiy black postocular bristles. The female taken by Dr J. H. AVood in 

 company with the male has the frons with but little black pubescence 

 (rubbed ? ) and slightly narrower than most of my specimens at the vertex, 

 the palpi dull orange and less dilated at the base and more equal in size 

 and much more extensively black-bristled even almost to the base, the 

 black hairs on the second antennal joint not longer or more hair-like on 

 the underside, the preealar calli more ferruginous, the grey abdominal 

 triangles larger, the belly without black hairs and the third and fourth 

 segments not obscured, the black bristles on the seventh ventral segment 



