428 TABANID^ 



cell with a ratlier vaguely defined semicircular lower margin, but does not 

 include the actual tip or base of that cell ; the hyaline space between 

 the middle and apical bands forms at its upper part a well-defined hyaline 

 space extending from the cubital fork upwards almost across the first 

 submarginal cell ; the basal black marking extends about half-way along 

 the upper basal cell and only a short distance along the middle basal cell. 

 Squamae blackish brown with a more obvious golden fringe on the alar pair 

 near the angle. 



Length about 9-5 mm. 



This species may be easily distinguished from C. quadrata and G. relicta 

 by its black tibiae, while G. sepulcralis is a smaller entirely black species in 

 which the facial and buccal calli coalesce, but there are other closely allied 

 European species. The pubescence on the sides of the thorax, 

 on the pleurse, and elsewhere varies in colour from tawny to a more 

 yellowish colour, and may be almost wholly pale on the face and on 

 some of the hairs about the base of the antennae; the basal two-thirds 

 of the first joint of the antennse (and very frequently at least some part 

 of the base) may be orange red, the grey lines on the thorax may 

 have only their outer margins distinct, and the discal cell may sometimes 

 show traces of a pale kernel ; a female taken at Lyndhurst on June 22, 

 1872, has the black coloring on the second abdominal segment very much 

 reduced, there being only a small middle spot on the foremargin from 

 which two narrow brownish lines diverge but do not reach the hindmargin, 

 and at the same time the third segment has a large orange triangle on the 

 hindmargin and a large orange spot on each side which occupies the side 

 third of the segment except indistinctly along the foremargin ; other 

 variations are also mentioned below. 



C. ccecuticns seems to be rather less common in Britain than G. relicta, 

 but yet is far too common in the southern part of England and especially 

 in the south-west, though I have however records from Cornwall to Nairn. 

 Colonel Yerbury took it at Brodie and Nairn in July 1904, but I believe 

 (as Duncan said in 1837) that it becomes " scarcer as we advance north- 

 " wards" ; Duncan recorded it from " Dumfriesshire, vicinity of Jardine Hall, 

 " common," and mentioned a black variety which had been taken in Suther- 

 landshire and in the south of Scotland, but this variety may have been 

 G. sepulcralis. A male taken by Mr C. J. Wainwright at Wyre Forest on 

 July 22, 1901, might easily have been recorded as G. sepidcralis, as 

 it has the face at first glance all black without any brownish orange middle 

 line but with only a dark line, the ground colour of the sides of the face 

 and the mouth hardly ferruginous, and there are a few pale hairs behind 

 the mouth ; the thorax and scutellum are fairly shining ; the pleurae have 

 continuous conspicuous brownish orange pubescence (but the pubescence on 

 the disc of the thorax is mainly rubbed off) ; the abdomen is very much 

 rubbed, but each side of the second segment has a lurid brownish yellow 

 spot which extends quite over the sides but is only slightly visible from 

 above ; belly dull brownish black, with the hindmargins not obviously rusty ; 

 pubescence of the abdomen considerably pale on the hindmarginal fringes 

 or on the sides of the hindmargins ; legs black on the anterior tibiae and 

 trochanters, and the posterior tarsi black to the very base. Specimens 

 taken at Porthcawl in July 1906 have the dark markings of the wing inky 

 black like specimens of several species of Bcris taken at the same time. 

 My dates range from June 1 (Austen gives May 24) to August 23. It is 



