﻿288 S. A. NEAVE — NOTES ON THE BLOOD-SUCKING 



species have two broods at least in the single long wet season of a country like 

 Nyasaland and possibly more in British East Africa, Avhich has two rainy 

 seasons in the year. The tendency of these flies to emerge from the pupa before 

 the advent of the rains is not nearly so marked as in the genus Tabanus. This 

 is probably connected with the fact that they require a more humid atmosphere 

 than the insects of that genus. The females usually bite, in Africa at least, in 

 rather dull damp weather and rarely in the heat of the sun, as is the usual habit 

 of Tabanus. In very sunny weather they are most in evidence from about 

 8-10 a.m. and again from 4 p.m to sunset. In exceptional localities, such as cool 

 and shady, damp forests, they may be troublesome all day. The males are 

 usually very sluggish and easily captured if they can be located. They some- 

 times occur in enormous numbers in one spot, and in Northern Kavirondo, in 

 June, the writer has seen hundreds of these insects crowded together on the 

 short grasses near water. The males of the forest species, however, are 

 extremely hard to locate and are therefore only procurable with difficulty. 



The eyes of the female insects of this genus are remarkable objects in life, 

 exhibiting a complicated pattern of iridescent colours which could only be satis- 

 factorily denoted by a coloured drawing. As the colours and patterns are of 

 diagnostic value it is to be hoped that some of the collectors who are kindly 

 assisting the work of the Committee will, if time avails, endeavour to send 

 coloured sketches of the eyes of these insects with their specimens. The 

 relation of the male eye to that of the female is similar to that in Tabanus. 

 The male eye exhibits a narrow, lower, small-facetted portion bearing the same 

 complicated pattern as in the eye of the female. The broad, upper, large- 

 facetted portion is usually unicolorous and never banded. This area of the eye 

 is usually of a shining grey or greyish bronze colour, occasionally, e.g., H. 

 mactans, with a number of irregularly placed minute dusky spots. 



Haematopota denshami, Aust. (PI. XI, fig. l.) 



An abundant species in open grass country in Northern Kavirondo, British 

 East Africa, and in the less forested parts of Uganda. It occurs side by side with 

 H. similis, Ric., and II. unicolor, Ric. Very large numbers of both sexes of all 

 three species were taken and in spite of the fact that the females all closely 

 resemble one another, the males, as will be seen from the figures (PL XI, 

 figs. 1, 2, 3), differ from one another in a remarkable and interesting manner. 

 The cT of H. denshami is an insect with small dark eyes, a dark thorax, the 

 anterior segments of the abdomen bright ochreous and the posterior ones dusky. 

 The c? °f H. similis is a nearly black insect, with small eyes ; while the S of 

 H. unicolor is an altogether pale insect with large pale eyes. 



Haematopota similis, Ric. (PL XI, fig. 2.) 



Like H. denshami, this is a very abundant species in open short-grass country 

 in Uganda and the Nyanza Province of British East Africa. 



Haematopota unicolor, Ric. (PL XI, fig. 3.) 



The same remarks as regards habits and distribution apply to this species as 

 to H. similis, Ric, and II. denshami, Aust. 



