LOUISIANA CIRCULAR No. 6. 



All the. species of horseflies taken so far in Louisiana be- 

 long to two genera, Chrysops and Tabanus. In Chrysops ("ear- 

 flies" and "deerflies") the wings are variegated with black, ;m<l 

 the various species are only slightly larger than the common 

 housefly; in Tdbanus ("horseflies") tHe wings are hyaline, or 

 generally marked with small black or brown spots, and the 

 species are larger, some of them very large. One or two of the 



FIG. 2. Little earfly (Chrysops piled), male, en- 

 larged to three diameters. 



L-rge species have the wings nearly uniformly black all over, 

 and another smaller one has the wings distinctly variegated 

 with black. There is no doubt but that there are two or more 

 other genera in the State that have not been collected, but the 

 ones named above, in any case, include most of the species 

 especially injurious in the United States. 



EGGS AND KGG LAYING IN GENERAL. 



All the species of Chrysops whose egg-laying habits I know, 

 and many species of Tdbanus as well, place their eggs over water, 

 while other species of Tdbanus oviposit on plants standing in 

 wet ground. Some species are very precise in placing their eggs 

 Tims, Tabanus stygius, which I have observed many time,* fol- 

 lows the interesting habit of ovipositing on the upper surface 

 'of the leaves of the arrow plant,* placing the eggs just above 

 the point where the petiole meets the expanded part of the leaf. 

 80 closely is this habit followed that a hundred masses of 

 are found thus located to one placed otherwise. Sometimes a 

 mass is observed on the leaf of another plant, but in the s;mir 

 location, and once in a long time eggs #re seen in a different, 

 position on a leaf. 



*Sagittaria ep. 



