8 THE EARLY STAGES OF TABANID^ 



described, and in the greater attention which was given to the larval 

 stages. A new school of investigation on this subject arose in the 

 German-speaking countries with Vienna as its center, where Schiner 

 had become an authority on the Diptera of Austria-Hungary, and 

 where Brauer devoted himself to a comparative study of insect meta- 

 morphosis, particularly of dipterous larvae. It is to be noted that 

 Scholtz, in 1848, in Breslau, on an excursion in which von Siebold also 

 took part, discovered some tabanid larv£E, indicating an influence of 

 the growing science of general zoology on this subject. In 1854 

 Mann discovered oviposition in Tahaniis aulumnalis, and Kollar, at 

 the Vienna Museum, observed the eggs of various other species of 

 Tabanus, stating that since Degeer nothing had been known about the 

 development of these insects. In the following decades great progress 

 was made in the knowledge of dipterous and other insect larvae, 

 chiefly through the Vienna school. In 1868 one of Brauer's students, 

 Marno, found the larvae of Hexatoma pellucens, a tabanid not rare in 

 Austria, this being one of the first instances known of an aquatic 

 larval stage in this family. This larva was described more fully in 

 1883 by Brauer himself. In 1869 Brauer was able to describe the 

 larva and pupa of Hcematopota pluvialis {Regenhremse) , which is 

 terrestrial, giving at the same time a careful drawing of the mouth- 

 parts with correct interpretation of all the details. At about the same 

 time Brauer was v/orking on the classification of dipterous larvae. 

 The larva of HcBmatopola pluvialis was, however, described also by 

 Pejris in France in 1870, who found it in rotten pine wood, and gives 

 a figure showing the fine striations which are not shown in Brauer's 

 figures; and the same larva was described in 1875 by Beling, inspector 

 of forests in the Harz mountains, both apparently independent of 

 Brauer's studies. Beling was also the first to describe the pupa of 

 Chrysops, in 1882. On the other hand, von Friedenfels, who found the 

 larva of Tabanus auiumnalis in the salt lakes of Siebenbiirgen, belonged 

 to the Vienna naturalist group, and the larva which he had supposed 

 to be an annelid was identified by Brauer. The results of all these 

 investigations are briefly summarized by Brauer in 1883 in the third 

 volume of Die Ziveifiiigler des Kaiserlichen Museums zu Wien, in which 

 the larvae of Tabanus solstitialis , spodopterus, and bromius, and the 

 larva of Hexatoma pellucens are described. 



