46 THE EARLY STAGES OF TABANID^ 



Chrysops himaculosa Neave. — An African species, allied to Chry- 

 sops centurionis Aust., discovered by Neave (1915) on Mt. Mlanje, 

 in southern Nyasaland. A typical male and female and one other of 

 each sex were bred in October and November, 1913; one female was 

 collected in November, 1912. 



Of the four individuals above mentioned three were bred from col- 

 lected pupas and the fourth from a larva which resembled that of 

 Chrysops longicornis, though considerably larger, with a somewhat 

 less strongly pigmented anal segment and with well marked hairs on 

 the syphon. 



The hooks of the pupal aster, especially the upper and middle 

 pairs, are decidedly elongate (Plate 13, Fig. 167, a, h, c). 



Imago, larvEe, and pupae had been taken on the banks of a wooded 

 stream. 



Chrysops callidus Osten Sacken. — A common and widely distrib- 

 uted species, recorded from most of the eastern states, reaching 

 Florida in the South, Indiana in the West, but apparently not occur- 

 ring in northern New England. Hine has described the oviposition 

 of this species, indeed has watched the entire process of oviposition, 

 which usually occupies from 20 minutes to half an hour, during 

 which time something like one to three hundred eggs are laid. 



The female alights on the leaf head downwards and begins to push 

 the tip of the abdomen forward towards the sternum of the thorax, 

 placing the protruding end of an egg against the leaf. This end sticks 

 fast and she then moves the tip of the abdomen backwards until 

 normal position is reached and the egg is free. By the same move- 

 ment one or two eggs are then placed to one side of this one and two 

 or three on the other side of it. The unfinished end is soon observed 

 to be V-shaped, the female moving gradually forward and placing the 

 end of the abdomen to one side of the V and depositing eggs along 

 down until the apex is reached, then changing the tip of the abdomen 

 to the outer part of the other side of the V and placing eggs along it 

 down to the apex on this side. 



This process is kept up, the female changing regularly to the outer 

 part of the opposite side of the V each time the apex is reached. 

 Between 9 o'clock and noon seems to be the favorite time of day for 



