26S 



HAROLD H. KING — SOME OBSERVATIONS ON THE BIONOMICS 



Pupal case (fig. 3). — Length 17 mm. Colour yellowish brown, thoracic 

 tubercles and abdominal spiracles darker, the former bearing hairs. On the 

 posterior third of the second to the seventh abdominal segments is a ring of 

 backwardly pointing spines, shortest on the second segment and longest on 

 the scA^enth. The eighth segment terminates in a coronet of six teeth 

 (fig. 3, h, c), chestnut brown in colour, darker at the tips, the lateral pair by 

 far the largest, the dorsal and ventral pairs being about equal in size, the 

 former sometimes slightly the larger. The dorsal pair arises from between 



Fig. 3. — Pupa of Tabanus ditceniatus, Macq. 



a, lateral view of pupa, xS ; b, lateral view of part of 6th, 7th and 8tli abdomina 

 segments, X 6 ; c, posterior view of 8tli abdominal segment (inverted), X 6. 



the lateral teeth, the four teeth constituting a row. Yentrally placed to 

 this coronet are two rows of similar teeth, each row consisting of from two 

 to five teeth, the two row^s together constituting an interrupted transverse 

 row. These teeth are unequal, and vary in size and number in different 

 specimens. 



The pupa when first formed is yellow with a greenish tinge, especially 

 on the thorax. Later, as the imago develops, the eyes show as deep maroon 

 and the thorax becomes generally darker. 



Tabanus kingi, Austen.* 



Khor Arbat (jig. 4), the locality in which this seroot occurs, is situated 

 about 22 miles N.N.W. of Port Sudan, and consists of a stream of slightly 

 brackish water running in a gorge in the rocky hills. On emerging from 

 the hills into the plain the stream loses itself in the sand. In the autumn, 

 during the brief rainy season^ it comes down in spate, and is then of con- 

 siderable size, but in April — the month in which these observations were 

 made — it is^ except where pools exists not more than a few inches in depth. 

 The bed of the stream is stony and there is little or no vegetation growing 

 on its banks. 



* For a description and figure of this species/see p. 291. 



