9^ 



SOME OBSERVATIONS ON THE BIONOMICS OF TABANUS 

 PAR, WALKER, AND TABANUS TyENIOLA, PAL. DE 

 BEAUY. 



By HAEOLD H. KING, 



Government Entomologist, Anglo-Egypttan Sudan, 

 Wellcome Eeseaech Labokatoetes, Khartoum. 



(Plate IX.) 



Notwithstanding the work which has been conducted durino- the hist few 

 years on blood-sucking flies, and particularly on those which occur in 

 Tropical Africa, owing to their connection, whether proved or merely 

 suspected, with the spread of various diseases of man and animals, nothing 

 has hitherto been published on the life-history of any African species of the 

 large family Tabanid^, except in the case of Tahanus higuttatus, Wied.'^ 

 It is hoped, therefore, that the following notes on the bionomics of two of the 

 more common Tabanids, though incomplete, may nevertheless be of some^ 

 interest. 



The figures illustrating this paper are by Mr. A. J. Engel Terzi, whil^v 

 Mr. E. E. Austen, of the British Museum (Natural History), has very 

 kindly supervised their production. 



Tabanus par. Walker. 



Occasional specimens of this Tabanid are met with on the White Nile 

 from Gebelein southwards, but it is rarely noticed boarding river-steamers 

 in any numbers. In the country behind Bor there were several small belts^ 

 where females abounded, but no males were seen. These females spent 

 their time resting among the vegetation, especially the low dom palms, until 

 some animal, such as a cow, approached, when they would at once fly off^ 

 and attack it. They did not, however, seem to follow cattle very far. No 

 eggs could be found, though a careful search was made in all the places that 

 were considered likely to serve as breeding-grounds, so a number of females,, 

 gorged with blood, were placed in a breeding-cage, in which was also a dish- 

 containing mud, water and growing grass and weeds. They fed on sugar 

 and water, and though the majority died within the first two days, the 

 survivors eventually produced three small batches of eggs. 



On some flowering bushes by Khor Felus, on the Sobat river, about seven 



* King-^ H. H. : Third L'eport of Wellcome Eesearcli Laboratories, Gordon Memorial 

 College, Khartoum. 



BULL. ENT. RES. VOL. I. PART II. JULY IQIO. 



