40 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



my notes on "Dorset Odonata in 1911" in the 'Entomologist' of 

 July, 1912. It is also called " abundant " in the ' Proceedings of the 

 Dorset Field Club,' 1917, p. 226.— F. H. Haines; Brookside, 

 Winfrith, Dorset, January 1st, 1922. 



Some Notes on the Habits of £ Tabanid^. — The following 

 observations were made in the New Forest — an especially favourable 

 habitat, as most visitors there will admit from painful experience, 

 for the blood-sucking "horse flies " — but the majority of the species 

 enumerated occur commonly elsewhere in the south, so that it is not 

 thought necessary to "localise" the subject of this article. The 

 scarcity of the harmless <$ Tabanid compared with the abundance 

 of the £ , with its apparently insatiable thirst for fresh blood, seems 

 to have puzzled our too few Dipterists, and one seeks in vain through 

 the text-books :;: for some satisfactory explanation of the cause. 

 Most authorities, however, seem agreed, and with reason, on one 

 point — i. e. the liking of the males for heights. Whether hovering 

 "over mountain tops " (sic) or merely sunning themselves on the leaves 

 of the highest oaks, it is difficult to tell, but undoubtedly they spend 

 the most of their time in the higher air, whence, it seems reasonable 

 to suppose, the female joins them after sanguinary work below. 

 [At least such seems to be the case with the bigger species (Tabanus), 

 but the smaller (Ghrysops) prove a partial exception ; the males of 

 this family, although adapted, as their wings and build indicate, for 

 rapid flight, show a fondness for flowers, and follow their respective 

 females in possessing a much more sluggish habit than their larger 

 brethren.] Previous to the past tropical summer (1921), the capture 

 of a ^ Tabanid was considered by me quite the catch of a day's 

 hunting, but the exceptional conditions produced by prolonged 

 drought somewhat altered this opinion, and besides resulting in the 

 capture of a large number of specimens, gained me a useful insight 

 as to the habits of these remarkable creatures. Towards the middle 

 of July most of the Forest streams were reduced — in the expressive 

 phrase of an entomological friend — to a chain of puddles, and it was 

 whilst prowling round a "muddy" link of the erstwhile clear and 

 trickling "water (?)" that a growing suspicion that many of the thirsty 

 forms of insect life continually " dipping " into the pool would 

 prove to be $ Tabanidcs at last became a certainty by the capture 

 of a number of T. bromius. The catching was a matter of some 

 difficulty, the flies coming down with almost the swiftness of a 

 falling stone, just " sipping " the water and then flying straight up 

 again, the art being to net them on the uptake without collecting 

 more of the pool in the bag of the net than could reasonably be 

 helped. By perseverance, however, and the use of a spare " kite " 

 net— the usual small implement used by Dipterists here being 

 useless — I managed to obtain the following species of $ Tabanidcs, 

 by the end of the day (identification, of course, is difficult, but no 

 doubtful specimens are included) : Hcematopota pluvialis, Linn. ; , 

 Therioplectes solstitialis, Meig. ; Th. tropicus, Harr. ; Tabanus bovimts, 

 Linn.; T. bromius, Linn.; T. maculicornis, Meig.; Chrysops cacutims, 

 Linn. ; G. relicta, Meig., and G. quadrata, Meig. The capture of three 



* I must confess to almost complete ignorance of Continental works on Diptera. . 



