WERNER MARCHAND 103 



distinct, having a thick rough integument of a dull reddish color, 

 with a tendency to two more definite patches of darker red on the 

 dorsal portions of the last two segments. The general coloration 

 appears to be largely due to the presence of foreign bodies in the 

 rough skin. The s3q)hon is very short, as seen in the figure (Plate 



5, Fig. 67). 



These larvae were most ferocious cannibals in all stages and very 

 troublesome in the laboratory, as they seemed to have unlimited 

 power of wandering about, even over dry surfaces. They fre- 

 quently succeeded in reaching the receptacles in which other species 

 were kept, and in destroying the larvae in them. 



In the pupal aster (Plate 15, Fig. 181, a, b, c) the dorsal hooks of the 

 male are somewhat larger than those of the female. The dorso- 

 lateral comb is large and composed of very long and fine spines. The 

 pupal asters of male and female, and the dorsolateral comb of the 

 female are figured. 



Tabanus cordiger Meigen. — A species described by Meigen (1820), 

 and widely spread in Europe, chiefly in the South. 



Brauer (1883) is the first to figure the larva of this species (Plate 



6, Fig. 88, a-d), but gives no description. 



Picard and le Blanc report that they found, on March 4, 1913, in the 

 trunk of a poplar at the edge of the Mousson River, near Montpellier, 

 France, an elongate, whitish larva, pointed at both ends and having 

 a ridge, or prominent ring, on each segment, a larva which appeared 

 to them to be that of a tabanid. The larva was placed in a jar con- 

 taining pieces of decaying wood from the poplar tree in which it 

 had been found, and was left without any other food. 



The exact time of pupation was not observed, but in the meantime 

 it seemed justifiable to assume that the larva was satisfied with the 

 vegetable food which it obtained from the decaying wood, since one 

 month after its capture it had not yet transformed. On June 10, a 

 male Tabanus was observed in the room, which had just hatched, and 

 was determined by Dr. Villeneuve as Tabanus cordiger Meig. 



The larva lived, at the time of its capture, in the stump of a poplar. 

 The wood of the stump was not yet completely decayed, but rather 

 soft and very moist. A careful search did not reveal any other 



