412 TABANID.E 



are sometimes some black bristly hairs. Palpi dull yellow, only moderately 

 stout on about the basal half but then drooping and gradually diminishing 

 to a blunt point, about four times as long as the width of the stoutest part, 

 clothed with rather dense black bristles all over the upper and outer sides 

 (except at the base) and with a few longer thin pale hairs beneath, especially 

 about the base ; basal joint short, blackish grey except at the luteous tip, and 

 bearing long whitish pubescence. Eyes in life brownish purplish green with 

 frequently a coppery shimmer and with one rather indistinct and incomplete 

 purple band across the middle, which slopes slightly upwards from front 

 to back ; the angle at the junction of the inner and lower margins of each 

 eye about 120", and consequently the eyes extending not much below the 

 antenniB ; eyes in profile about as high as long. Antennas orange or brownish 

 orange ; basal joint with its dorsal front angle drawn out into a short black 

 bristled point ; the two basal joints bearing almost all over short black 

 bristles; third joint a little widened at the base and (without the style-like 

 portion) about twice as long as broad, with the small but obvious dorsal hump 

 placed well before its middle, and the other segments together about two-thirds 

 the length of the basal segment, sometimes all orange or sometimes blackish. 



Thorax greyer than in the male and the lighter grey stripes more evident 

 and appearing in very perfect specimens as broad stripes of brownish yellow 

 depressed pubescence ; the erect black pubescence on the disc shorter and 

 extending perhaps further above the suture and with more numerous 

 depressed thin pale hairs intermixed, so that any contrast (when viewed side- 

 ways) between the black and pale pubescence is less obvious ; pubescence 

 on the pleurae usually all whitish grey, but sometimes the tuft near the 

 wing-base brownish yellow. 



Abdomen flatter than in the male, and with three conspicuous rows of 

 light yellowish or whitish grey triangular flecks which extend from the first to 

 the sixth segments, though all the flecks on the second and third segments 

 are more conspicuous than the others because the sloping side-flecks on them 

 extend from near the foremargia right away to the hind corners and merge 

 there into the conspicuous yellowish or whitish grey pubescence along the 

 sides of the hindmargins, but on the fourth and fifth segments the conspicuous 

 sides of the hindmargins mainly form the flecks of the side roAvs, but only 

 slightly so on the sixth segment ; the intervals on the hindmargins between 

 the light pubescence of the middle and that of the sides contrastedly black ; 

 upper points of the middle triangles seldom extending much over the lower 

 half of each segment but sometimes touching the foremargins so that the middle 

 row of flecks becomes then continuous, and (according to Brauer) the side rows 

 sometimes confluent ; in rubbed specimens the abdominal spots are slaty 

 blue ; second segment with an inconspicuous brownish orange spot near each 

 upper side corner, and the hind corners of the second to fourth (and sometimes 

 even fifth) segments brownish orange. Belly lighter grey than in the male, 

 and with only very narrow yellowish hindmargins of segments. 



Legs almost as in the male, but with the base of the posterior tarsi occa- 

 sionally rather more ferruginous. 



Wings, squamaj, and halteres almost as in the male. 



Length about 12 mm. 



This species may be distinguished in the male from any other British 

 one except T. cordiger and T. glaucopis by the long postocular ciliation, 

 while even in rubbed specimens the frons is not shining as in T. glaucopis ; 

 from T. cordiger the more elongate palpi, black hairs on the npper 

 part of the side-cheeks, and the paler antenna? provide easy distinctions ; 

 the female is distinguished from those two species by the more linear 

 middle frontal callus, and from T. glaucopis by the absence of any shining 

 space on the frons, and from T. cordiger by its narrower shape and slightly 

 smaller size, by the presence of a few black hairs on the upper part of the 

 side-cheeks, by the paler antennae, by the larger abdominal spots of which 

 the side ones are more spread out towards the hind corners of the 



