380 TABANIDvE 



inconspicuous, and the legs with scarcely any long ciliation on the middle 

 tibiae, but I do not in the least doubt its identity with the species well 

 known to me. There are however some females which were taken by 

 Colonel Yerbury at Kenniare and G-lengariff, Co. Kerry, which are rather 

 intermediate between T. soUtitialis and T. distinguendiis ; they agree 

 exactly in abdominal coloring with T. sohtitialis, but have thinner and 

 more pointed palpi (like L)r Wood's specimen), long haired basal antennal 

 joints, coarse black antero-dorsal ciliation on the hind tibiae almost up 

 to the base, blackish pubescence behind the front femora and posterior 

 tibiae except for the tiny bristles beneath the basal half of the hind 

 tibiae, and the hind tibiae scarcely darkened until the extreme tip ; they 

 also agree with Dr Wood's specimen in being smaller than most of my 

 specimens, and in having the abdomen narrower but more oblong. 



T. solstitialis (as understood by me) is by no means so common as 

 T. distinguendus, but has occurred as mentioned above and also in 

 Hampshire (Lyndhurst) and Cambridgeshire (Chippenham Fen) from 

 June 24 to July 8. Brauer records his T. sohtitialis from England to 

 Asia Minor and North Asia, but not from South or North Europe. 



Synonymy. — I do not suppose that the species I have now described is the same 

 as most authors have recorded as T. solstitialis, but I am convinced that it is the 

 same as the (apparently) type specimen of the female in Meigen's collection at Paris. 

 I have dealt at greater length with the synonymy under 2\ distinguemlus. 



ATYLOTUS. 



(Subgenus of Tahaiius.) 

 Atylotus Osten Sacken, Mem. Bost. Soc, ii., 426 (1876). 

 A convenient subdivision of the gigantic genus Tabanus. 



"Eyes pubescent, with a simple narrow purple cross-band in the 

 " middle, or unicolorous (?) ; no vestige of an ocellar tubercle ; frontal 

 " callosity either entirely wanting or imperfect. Head rather large, very 

 " convex anteriorly and concave posteriorly. In the male, the difference 

 " in size between the large and small facets is considerable, the line of 

 " division between them distinct ; palpi ( ^ ) stout at base ; third joint of 

 " the antennte rather broad, with a comparatively short, stout, annulate 

 " portion ; upper branch of the third vein knee-shaped at base, with a ten- 

 " dency to emit a stump of a vein ; first posterior cell broadly open." 



The above quoted words are those used by Osten Sacken in his last 

 definition of this subgenus (Western Diptera, 215, 1877) and are only a 

 slight modification of his original characters. His original description 

 said " coloration of the eyes uniform (sometimes a single indistinct stripe). 

 " The coloring of the eyes I quote after European authors ; I do not know 

 " that of the American species but have little doubt, from the appearance 

 " of the dry specimens, that it is the same as in the others." Whether he 

 subsequently knew more about the eyes I do not know, but he had been 

 misled as I have noted below. 



I do not intend to deal in this work with the limitations of the sub- 

 genus Atylotus, mainly because there can be no doubt about our British 

 species but also because we have so few species; I know however that 



