86 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



yellow knobs, and the tibiae yellow with black tips. In another well-known British Tabanus (T. 

 tropicus) the eyes are of a brassy-green colour, with three purple bands ; and in another smaller 

 species, the GOLDEN-EYE (Chrysops ccecutiens), which is also widely distributed, these organs 

 are of a beautiful golden green colour, with tive spots and the hinder border purple. The most 

 abundant of all the British species is the CLEGG (Hcematopota phivialis\ which is particularly common 

 in low, damp situations, where it is a great plague. This is a dingy, grey-looking insect, with a 



METAMORPHOSES OF TABANUS BOVINUS. 



greyish-brown body, and mottled-grey wings. It is distinguished generically from the Tabani, 

 which have antennae of three joints, with the last deeply notched at the side, and ringed near the 

 tip, by the possession of slender antennae, in which the third joint is rather long, and followed by 

 three short but apparently distinct joints ; it is also destitute of ocelli. The generic name, which 

 may be taken to signify " blood-drinker," is well conferred upon it. In the genus Pangonia, several 

 species of which inhabit the continent of Europe, especially in the south, the proboscis is very 

 variable in length, sometimes being more than twice as long as the body. 



FAMILY X. ASILID^E. 



In these insects, which, from their habits, might very well be called " Hawk Flies," the general 

 form of the body is elongated, and more or less cylindrical, and the head is more rounded and separated 



