DIPTERA. — TABANIDZ. 539 
encloses six (fig. 128. 5.), but in the male only four lancet-like instru- 
ments. It is terminated by two fleshy lip-like lobes, and is defended 
at the sides by the maxillary palpi, which are large, and 2-jointed. 
The third joint of the antenne is large, and often with an excision 
before the middle, and extending to the extremity of the joint; the 
remaining joints, varying in number from three to seven, are closely 
united and attenuated to the tips (jig. 128. 6.). The eyes are very 
large, and nearly cover the whole head, especially in the males, in 
which, also, the upper facets are of a larger size than the lower ones. 
(Macquart, Hist. NV. Dipt.tom.i. p. 189. A similar remark has been 
made by Mr. Ashton, in a paper read before the Entomol. Society, 
In the males of Tabanus, which I have examined, it is only the mid- 
dle facets which are enlarged.) The eyes are, moreover, often very 
beautifully coloured (fig. 128. 2. face of male showing the small size 
of the trophi, 3. head in front, and 4. sideways, of the female); the 
wings are extended horizontally at the side of the body ; the alulets 
are large; the abdomen is triangular and depressed; the tarsi are 
furnished with three pulvilli beneath the ungues (jig. 128. 7.); the 
thorax, as in the majority of the Brachoceratous division, is thick 
and compact, the dorsal portion being almost entirely mescthoracic ; 
the scutellum large and elevated; the metathorax is reduced above 
to a very narrow ring beneath the scutellum, the major part of the 
metathorax being covered by the basal segment of the abdomen.* 
This family, which comprises some of the largest Dipterous insects, 
is pre-eminently distinguished for the tormenting powers which the 
different species possess of piercing the skins and sucking the blood 
of various quadrupeds, and even of man himself. They abound in 
woods and pastures, and make a buzzing noise, whence they have 
obtained the English name of “ the breeze.” (See Mouffet, p. 51., and 
The New World of Engl. Words, 1658.) They are also called gad- 
flies, and some of the smaller species are called clegs. The insect of 
which Bruce has spoken in his Travels in Africa, under the name of 
Tsaltsalya or Zimb (and which attacks cattle in so dreadful a man- 
ner, that unless immediately driven to the sands of Atbara, they 
forsake their food, and run wildly about the plains, dreading even “ its 
very sound,” until they die, worn out with fatigue, fright, and hunger), 
has been by some writers considered to be a species of this family. 
* Fig. 128.8. represents the thorax of Tabanus seen laterally ; the mesothorax 
being dotted. The terminal striped part represents the base of the abdomen A, con- 
cealing the majority of the metathorax x. 
