﻿INSECTS OF EASTERN TROPICAL AFRICA. 293 



Tabanus fasciatus niloticus, Aust. 



Fairly common throughout Uganda and the Nyanza Province of British East 

 Africa. Some of the individuals from Lake Edward and the Semliki Valley 

 seem to be somewhat intermediate between T. fasciatus niloticus and the western 

 type-form. This species has a powerful flight, and I once took a specimen on 

 board-ship in the middle of the Kavirondo Gulf, some miles from land. The 

 eyes of the female are a beautiful deep green colour. In the males, of which I 

 obtained a small series, the lower small-facetted portion of the eyes resembles 

 that of the female, while the upper large-facetted area is a greyish bronze. 



Tabanus brucei, Ric. 



This fine species is represented in the collection from the region under dis- 

 cussion by a single female from the valley of the Chambezi River, Northern 

 Rhodesia, April 1 908. This insect is common in the principal river valleys of 

 Katanga, in the southern Congo Free State, where it has apparently at least 

 two broods during the year : one in October, at the beginning of the rains, and 

 another about April, at the end of the wet season. The eyes of the female are 

 of a deep green colour. The male is not known. 



Tabanus africanus, Gray. 



This species occurs over a very wide area in Eastern Africa, but I have never 

 seen it remarkably abundant in any one place. It is usually found on fairly low 

 ground and particularly in the neighbourhood of large rivers or lakes. I do not 

 recollect ever seeing it near small bodies of water. The males are very scarce ; 

 I captured only five individuals, three on the Chitala stream, near Domira Bay, 

 Nyasaland, in October 1910, and two near Lake Kioga, Uganda, in August 1911. 

 The female eye is green, and the male eye green below and golden bronze above. 



Tabanus maculatissimus, Macq. 



This very striking fly is widely distributed in Northern Rhodesia, Nyasa- 

 land and German East Africa, but is never plentiful in any one place. In the 

 lower Luang wa Valley, Northern Rhodesia, in September 1910, I captured four 

 males and two females, and the following month in Nyasaland, near Domira Bay. 

 two males and one female ; in German Territory, to the north of Lake Nyasa, in 

 November and December, five more females. The male is strikingly different in 

 colouring from the female a3 may be seen from a comparison of the figure 

 (PI. X, fig. 1) with that of the female in Mr. Austen's book.* The eyes of 

 both sexes are vitreous, with numerous small black spots. 



Tabanus biguttatus, Wied. 



This striking species occurs all over Eastern Tropical Africa, chiefly on low 

 ground and in the neighbourhood of large bodies of water. The sexes seem to 

 occur in about equal numbers, 76 males and 71 females having been taken during 

 the tour. When on the shores of Lake Mpeketoni, near Kipini, at the mouth of 

 the Tana River, British East Africa, in March 1912, I found a number of these 



* " African Blood-sucking Flies," PI. VI, fig. 4G. 

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