116 MISC. PUBLICATION 305, U. 8S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 
TABANUS ABDOMINALIS Fabricius 
(Fig. 54, B) 
Tabanus abdominalis Fabricius, Systema Antliatorum, p. 96, 1805; Osten Sacken, 
Mem. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist. 2 (pt. 4, No. 4, and sup.): 434-486, 557-558, 
1876-78; Smithsn. Mise. Collect. No. 270, p. 227, 1878; McAtee and Walton, 
Ent. Soe. Wash. Proc. 20: 204, 1918. 
Rather large; orange brown, the abdomen with a row of subquadrate, dark, 
median spots, occasionally with a pale triangle behind each one; wing spotted 
with brown; fore tibia bicolored; frons narrow; cell Rs nearly or quite closed. 
Female.—Length 19-22 mm. Eye bare, purple, with two green bands. Head 
yellowish gray. Frons very narrow, its height at least five times width 
across basal callus, slightly widened above: basal callus dark brown, higher 
than wide, touching eyes at base only and gradually tapering to a slender 
median callus reaching to upper third of frons; vertex gray, with short black 
hair. First two antennal segments dark orange brown, with short black hair; 
third orange, the annulate portion sometimes darker; dorsal angle prominent, 
rectangular, the dorsal excision pronounced; length of annulate portion about 
two-thirds that of basal portion. Hair of clypeus and genae pale yellowish. 
Second palpal segment of moderate length and thickness, tapering to a narrow 
apex, orange brown to black, densely clothed with short black hair. 
Mesoscutum nearly black, with yellowish lines in usual pattern; prescutal 
lobe with dense fringe of black hair; yellowish hair around wing base; scutel- 
lum black, with a lighter margin and yellowish hair. Pleura, sternum, and 
coxae yellowish gray, with pale-yellow hair. Wing dilute orange brown, paier 
posteriorly and in center of cells; cross veins faintly margined with brown 
and fureation with a distinct brown spot; cell Rs nearly cr quite closed. Femora 
black, with concolorous hair; tibiae orange, except apical half or more of fore 
tibia and apical fourths of middle and hind tibiae, which are black or very 
dark orange; hair concolorous with part from which it arises, including the 
well developed hind tibial fringe; tarsi dark brown to black. 
Abdomen above orange, usually with a median row of black spots on an- 
terior margins of tergites;: spot on tergite 2 narrow, reaching to center; 
those on tergites 3-7 progressively longer and wider; there may be indications 
of pale triangles posteriorly to these dark spots, but they may be wholly lack- 
ing in well preserved specimens; venter orange, the posterior sternites darker, 
with orange hind margins. 
Male-——Unknown. 
Cotypes.—Iwo females in the museum of the Jardin des Plantes, 
Paris. 
Type locality —Carolina. 
Distribution —Connecticut to Florida and west to Oklahoma and 
Texas. June 15 (Beaumont, Tex.) to August 24 (Imboden, Ark.). 
In the United States National Museum, 16 females. 
The original description of this species is scarcely recognizable, 
but the identity was established by Osten Sacken and the type speci- 
mens discussed by him. McAtee and Walton stated that the character 
of the closed cell R; was not sufficient to separate this species from 
sulcifrons Macquart, and that since the species was described from fe- 
males the character of the eye in the male cannot be used. This is 
true, but other characters mentioned by Osten Sacken, such as the 
width of the frons and the color of the abdomen, will separate this 
species from its relatives. Since Osten Sacken examined the types 
the writer assumes that his determination of the species is correct. 
