NOTES ON IHE LIFE HiSTOIiY OF {'EllTALN 

 QUEENSEAM) TAF.ANIh FLIES. 



By Peofessor T. Harvey JoH^sTo^^ M.A., D.Sc, and 

 M. J. Bancroft, B.Sc, Walter and Eliza Hall Fellow 

 in Economic Biology, Universit}", Brisbane. 



(Text-figures 1-8.) 



(Bead before the Royal Society of Queetisland, 30th August, 



1920). 



In 1911, Mr. W. W. Eroggatt, in his bulletin dealing 

 with March fUes fl911, p. 4), mentioned that nothing was 

 known regarding the life history of any of the AustraHan 

 Tabanidse. As far as we are aware, no information has 

 been pubHshed since. Taylor (1916, p. 753), has 

 described the egg mass of Silvn(s australis Ricardo, a 

 species which occurs at Eidsvold, Burnett River, where 

 the material forming the subject of this paper was collected. 



Since the Tabanidse have l)een considered as possible 

 transmitting agents of the nematode parasite. 

 Onchocerca gibsoni Cleland and Johnston, which causes 

 the formation of " worm nodules " in AustraUan cattle, 

 considerable attention has been paid to them in Queensland 

 and New South Wales. We have already pubHshed 

 (J. and B., 1920, p. 34-5), a list of those recorded as 

 occurring at Eidsvold, most of the identifications ha\'ing 

 been made by Dr. E. W. Ferguson, Sj^dney, who, -with 

 Miss Henrj^ has recently published an account of those 

 met with at Kempse}', N.S. Wales (P.L.S., N.S.W., 44, 

 1919, p. 828), where work on Onchocerca is also in progress. 



Since none of the Tabanids oviposited in captivity-- 

 we endeavoured to ascertain the life history of local species 

 by breeding out such larvae as were found under natural 

 conditions, especially in damp soil along the banks of the 



