ZOOLOGY 465 



DIPTERA. 



By Ernest E. Austen 

 (Zoological Department, British. Museum). 



So far as can be ascertained, no diptera whatever have as yet been described from 

 Uganda, and the present brief list is based almost entirely upon a small series of 

 specimens presented to the British Museum by Mr. G. F. Scott-Elliot, and collected 

 by him in Ruwenzori and the neighl)ouring region of the Western Province. Un- 

 fortunately the majority of these are in very poor condition, while some are altogether 

 undeterminable. The diptera of Africa generally have as yet been little collected and 

 studied, but sufficient is known to indicate an extraordinarily wide distribution in the 

 case of many species, some of which range from Senegambia to Delagoa Bay, and from 

 Algeria to Cape Colony. It it practically certain, therefore, that many species described 

 from other parts of the African continent will be found to occur within the confines of 

 the Uganda Protectorate, and it is to be hoped that the insects belonging to this 

 interesting order will soon receive their fair share of attention in the territories which 

 form the subject of the present work. 



B1B10NID.E. 



Plecia dorsalis, Macq. Ruwenzori, 5,.300 feet (G. F. Scott-Elliot). This species Avas 

 described from the Cape : the ^Museum collection contains a specimen from Pretoria 

 (W. L. Distant). 



T1PULID.E. 



Tvpida sp. (proliably new). Between Katwe and Buamba (G. F. Scott-Elliot). 

 Tipula sp. (probably new). Ruwenzori, 6,000 to 8,000 feet (G. F. Scott-Elliot). 

 Pachi/rhina sp. (probably new). Ruwenzori, 6,000 to 8,000 feet (G. F. Scott-Elliot). 



Tabanid^. 



Tahanus sp. Laikipia (W. J. Gregory). Very close to T. dorsivittd, Walk., but the 

 median stripe on the abdomen is narrower, while the fringe on the outside of the 

 hind tibiai consists of black pile, or of black mixed with pale pile, instead of pale pile 

 alone. The palpi are clothed on a portion of their outer face with thickly set minute 

 black hairs, which are absent or less numerous in the case of T. dorsivitta. It is, 

 of course, quite possible that further researches may prove the supposed species to be 

 nothing more than a local race of the latter. Although Laikipia is beyond the borders 

 of the Uganda Protectorate, there can be no doubt, in view of the wide distribution of 

 other African species of Tahanm, that the range of the present one extends into the 

 Eastern Province at any rate. The true Tabamts dorsivitta was originally described 

 from the Gambia, l)ut the British Museum collection also includes specimens from Voi 

 and Samburn, near Mombasa, as well as from the Zambezi. A specimen of the species 

 from Laikipia, as distinguished above, was taken by iNIr. L. L. Prichard on the Zambezi 

 on February 27th, 1901, with specimens of T. dorsivitta ; and the Museum also possesses 

 examples from Mombasa (D. J. Wilson), and Kilimanjaro (F. J. Jackson). Specimens 

 of both species were labelled " Hi])po flies " by Mr. Prichard. 



Tahanus lati^ws, Macq. Laikijna (W. J. Gregory) (syn. T. afncanus, Gray ; 

 T. fenestratus, Walk.). Although there are no specimens in the British :\ruseuni from 



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