On tlie Tabanulio of (lie xlustralian Rerjion. 387 



XLIX. — Notes on the Tabanidae of the Australian Region. 

 By Gektriui: Ricardo. 



2'abaxinm. 



TabanuSj Linn. 



This paper is based on tlie material in the Brit. Mus. Coll., 

 on a small collection of Hies sent me by Mr. Froggutt for 

 identification, wiiicli he kindly allows me to retain and add 

 to the National Collection, on a number of Tabanidai sent 

 me by Mr. Waiuwright for identification, on a few Tabanidte 

 in Diptera sent me by Mr. French from the Melbourne 

 ]\Iuseum to work out, and, lastly, on theTabanidte belonging 

 to the German Entomological ^luseum in Berlin sent me 

 some months ago by llerr Schenkling, which 1 had promised 

 to describe, the results to be published by him in his 

 ' Supplementa Entomologica.'' I had already received from 

 him a proof of the MS. on the species of Tabanus from the 

 Palaearctic Region in the above-mentioned museum just 

 before the war broke out, which must, of course, be laid 

 aside till the conclusion of peace. Meanwhile, the editors of 

 tlie 'Annals '' have kindly undertaken to publish these notes, 

 iu which will be inclu(!ed species from the Celebes eastward, 

 including Tasmania and outlying islands ; the species from 

 Kew Guinea have already been dealt with in my paper iu 

 ' Kesultats Expedition Sci. Neerlandaise Nouv. Guinee,' ix. 

 (3) 1913. The New Zealand species I propose to describe 

 separately, as they appear to have little affinity with those of 

 the mainland, 



A'^ery little work has been done in this family from this 

 region since Macquart and Walker's time (1838-1856). In 

 1911 !Mr. Froggatt mentioned a ie-vr species in '^larch 

 Flies.' Mr. K. H. Taylor, in Austr. Inst. Trop. Med. 1911, 

 published 1913, described several new species and Miss 

 Summers others in the Aim. &jMag. Nat. Hist. (8) x. (1912). 

 Several of these new species, however, prove to be synonyms 

 of older species (see Mr. Austen on Mr. Taylor's paper in 

 Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. (8) xiii. 1914). This is not sur- 

 prising, as, unless one has access to the types, it is almost 

 impossible to identify species from the descriptions by 

 Macquart, Walker, and Bigot. Having been able to examine 

 tlie majority of these authors' types in the British and Paris 

 Museums and in the late Mr. X^errall's collection, I am 



