396 TABANID^. 



pubescence similar to that on the disc of the thorax, and sometimes with 

 the margin slightly ferruginous. 



Abdomen similar to that of the male but flatter, longer than broad and 

 more equally broad, and more rounded at the tip ; coloration and markings 

 almost as in the male, but the whitish triangles down the dorsal line more 

 conspicuous and nearly reaching the f oremargins of the segments ; or the 

 abdomen may be better described as brownish tawny on the two basal 

 segments, and thence blackish with broad (more than a third the segment) 

 tawny hindmargins to the segments and with one dorsal row of rather elongate 

 triangular yellowish white spots on the second to sixth segments, and the 

 tawny hindmargins just sepai'ated from the triangular spots by a small 

 interval. Pubescence consi^icuously following the ground colour, but all 

 golden brownish on the basal segment ; sidemarginal pubescence all yellow, 

 but black jmbescence reaching very near to the corners of the second to fourth 

 segments. Belly usually less ferruginous than in the male, but more greyish with 

 broad greyish yellow hindmargins and an interrui^ted broad lilackish middle 

 stripe and blackish tip ; it is however more ferruginous than in ordinary T. 

 sudeticus. 



Legs with all pale pubescence, even including the slight but obvious 

 dorsal ciliation on the hind tibiae ; front tibiae orange brown on the basal two- 

 thirds ; " touch-hairs " beneath the front tarsi very slight and inconspicuous. 



Wings and squamai almost as in the male. Halteres with a blackish stem, 

 and with the tip of the knob yellow. 



Length about 20 mm. ( c^ ) or 21 mm. ( $ ). 



This species does not appear to vary much but is very closely allied 

 to T. sudetiras, while some varieties of the female of the latter are very 

 difficult to distinguish ; both sexes of T. bovinus are altogether tawnier 

 than T. sudeticus and are rather smaller, while the male of T. sudeticKS may 

 be distinguished with certainty by its enlarged front and upper eye-facets. 

 The female of T. bovinus has the pale hindmargins of the abdominal 

 segments more merged into the ferruginous coloring of the segments, and 

 has the triangular pale spots longer so that they almost or quite reach the 

 foremargins of the segments, the blunt lower margin of the frontal callus 

 less dentate, and as far as my experience goes the frontal callus itself 

 longer (though Brauer's figures give it shorter), the frontal stripe slightly 

 narrower, the sidemarginal pubescence of the abdomen almost or quite 

 all yellowish, and I should have said that an easy distinction occurs 

 in tlie manifestly greyer more distinctly striped thorax were it not for a 

 number of specimens which I mention later on under T. sudeticus. T. 

 bovinus appears to occur earlier (end of June and first half of July) than 

 T. sudeticus, and Brauer states that the eyes in life of T. bovinus are 

 coppery pale green while those of T. sudeticus are coppery blackish brown. 

 The only other British species at all approaching in size is T. autumnalis, 

 which has three obvious rows of abdominal spots or flecks. 



T. bovinus cannot be considered a common British species, but in the 

 New Forest its ominous " buzz " is not uncommon, and it is not pleasant to 

 hear several of these grand flies around one in the sequestered glades of the 

 Forest, especially when the sudden cessation of the " buzz " indicates that 

 they have settled somewhere ! I have seen specimens from Weybridge, 

 Woking, and Eeading, all of which may be continuations of the New Forest 

 district (though I believe that T. sudeticus also occurs in the New Forest); 

 I have also caught it in Abbotts Wood in Sussex, but at present I distrust 

 other records as they probal)ly refer to T. sudeticus ; I can however 

 accept Austen's records of Oxshott and Farnham in Surrey and Ivybridge 

 in South Devon. Duncan's old Scotch and Irish localities almost certainly 



