2. TABANUS 399 



with a few yellow bristles intermixed, but sometimes the black bristles are 

 restricted to the lower part of the outside or even reduced to a few black 

 bristles on the underside, and the joint is bare inside except near the tip • 

 basal joint more blackish hued, with long dull yellow pubescence and 

 near the tip with numerous black hairs. Antennae as in the male, but some- 

 times quite as dark as in T. hovimis and with the dorsal hump near the base 

 of the third joint more pronounced. 



Thorax almost as in the male, being usually blackish and hardly at all 

 striped, but a variety mentioned below has the thorax greyish and striped 

 as in T. hovimis ; pubescence in front of the postalar calli black and the pale 

 tuft on their outer side conspicuous. 



Abdomen broader and more rounded at the tip than in the male and a 

 little broader than in T. hovimis, but the ordinary coloration of both sexes 

 very similar ; the tawny or yelloAv hindmargins of the segments usually 

 broader and less connected with the greyish white middle triangular spots, 

 and these hindmargins more sharply defined than in T. hovimis because 

 there is no ferruginous coloring into which they can merge, and towards the 

 tip of the abdomen they become more whitish ; pubescence pale and more 

 conspicuous on the hindmargins, and apparently more extended on to the 

 darker parts adjoining ; the greyish white triangular middle spots scarcely 

 extending higher up than the middle of each segment ; sidemarginal pubescence 

 mainly following the ground colour, and consequently black on the 

 iDasal segment, on the basal three-fifths of the second segment, on the basal 

 two-fifths or half of the third segment, and on just the base of the fourth 

 segment. Belly so much more pale yellowish grey than in the male 

 that the blackish coloring is usually reduced to a middle stripe of large 

 blackish semicircular spots which are just separated at each hindmargin. _ 



Wings almost as in the male. Squamse more blackish than in T, bovinvs. 

 Halteres with the dark parts blacker. 



Length about 22 mm. (^ , 23 mm. ? . 



Var. ? 6. Efither smaller, and generally resembling T. hovinus but 

 distinguished from that by the enlarged eye-facets. Pubescence all down 

 the cheeks mainly black ; palpi with all the tiny bristles on the outside 

 black. Abdomen rather broader, shorter, and less pointed, with the 

 second segment nearly all rich dark brownish tawny with a blackish dorsal 

 spot which is cut into by the whitish triangular spot and which does not 

 extend over the well-defined brownish yellow hindmargin ; this tawny 

 colour extends upwards considerably on to the first segment, while even 

 the third segment shows traces of it between the middle and the sides just 

 before the paler hindmargin ; pale triangular spots not reaching up to the 

 middle of the segments; sidemargins as in normal T. sudeticus. Belly 

 black, with whitish hindmargins which are rather narrowed at their 

 middle. Genital lamellae mainly pale haired. Hind tibise entirely pale 

 fringed. 



I possess one male of this distinct-looking form, which came from the 

 late W. Wilson Saunders' British collection and which is set in exactly 

 the same fashion as the specimens of T. hovinus which were in that 

 collection. If an unrecognised very closely allied species exist, it is 

 possible that this specimen may be the male of the following female form. 



Var. ? perplexus ? . Eesembling normal T. sudeticus in size and 

 abdominal markings, except that the abdomen has a tendency to a more 

 tawny colour both above and beneath, while the middle triangles are longer 

 and more like those of T. hovinus. Front tibise often with quite the apical 

 tliird blackish. Belly grey or even almost tawny on the hindmargins and 

 sides so that only a middle row is left of more sharply defined blackish 

 semicircular spots than in true T. sudeticus. Thorax greyish, with the 



