﻿INSECTS OF EASTEKN TROPICAL AFRICA. 297 



and 274 females were obtained. The eyes of this species are remarkably 

 brilliant. The female eye has a ground colour of a clear shining green with a 

 broad transverse crimson band. In the lower part of each eye are two crimson 

 spots. In the male eye the above pattern is reproduced in the lower small- 

 facetted area ; the upper portion is also banded with the same colours, but they 

 are much less brilliant and less clearly defined. 



Tabanus diversus, Kic. 



Examples of this species were taken sparingly from various localities in 

 Northern Rhodesia, Nyasaland and German East Africa. Two males captured at 

 the end of September near Fort Jameson, Northern Rhodesia, would seem to be 

 correctly assigned to the females of this species, and this is borne out by 

 the character of the eyes, which in the female are dusky purple. In the 

 case of these males, the small-facetted area has the same dusky purple colour, 

 the large-facetted area being greyish white with a central band of greyish 

 dusky. The absence of green and crimson bands in the lower portion distin- 

 guishes these males at once from those of T. gratus, which they otherwise 

 somewhat resemble. 



Tabanus gratus, Lw. (PL X, fig. 8.) 



This species occurs in river valleys over a very wide area in Eastern Africa, 

 but nowhere in very great abundance. My collection contains 48 males and 17 

 females in all. The eyes in life are exceedingly beautiful objects. That of the 

 Q has a shining green ground-colour, with a border and a central band of 

 shining crimson. The cT e y e nas t Re lower small-facetted position banded and 

 coloured like the female eye, the large-facetted upper portion being dull greenish 

 grey with a central band of dull crimson. 



Tabanus leucostomus, Lw. (PI. X, figs. 3, 4.) 



I found this interesting and little known species abundant in Northern 

 Rhodesia and Nyasaland, especially in the low country. I also took a few 

 individuals in similar localities in the coast belt in British East Africa. In this 

 species the males would seem to be more common or at least more easily taken 

 than the females, my collection containing from all sources 144 c? c? to 46 Q Q . 

 It does not seem to bite man very readily. The female eye is black ; the male 

 shining black below and dark bluish grey above. 



Tabanus crocodilinus, Aust. 



Represented by a single male taken on a patch of swamp, in October 1910, 

 near Domira Bay, Nyasaland. The $ eye has the large facets shining grey 

 and the small facets iridescent greenish. From this it may be inferred with a 

 reasonable degree of probability that the Q , which I have not myself seen in 

 nature, has eyes of the same iridescent greenish colour. 



Tabanus claritibialis, Ric. 



This appears to be a not uncommon species in the wet season in the Upper 

 Shire Valley and round the southern shores of Lake Nyasa. It has also been 

 received from the mid-Luangwa Valley. The female eyes are dusky and 

 unhanded. 



