Dec., 1901.] 
Collecting Tabanidae. 
167 
COLLECTING TABANIDAE. 
James S. Hine. 
The habits of flies belonging to the family Tabanidae, com- 
monly called horse-flies or gad-flies, furnish much material for 
study and observation. I take this opportunity to record some 
of tile notes which I have taken in the last few years while 
endeavoring to collect and study the local species of the family. 
Although the eggs, larvae and pupae of many species have been 
studied, what I have to say in this paper pertains wholly to the 
adults. Members of the family are usually taken by every ento- 
mologist who does general collecting, but as a usual thing males 
are seldom taken ; in fact this sex is so poorly represented in 
collections that no key has been published for identifying the 
males of our American species. The student must use the key 
to the females as far as possible and guess at the rest. In very 
many cases the male is not even described, so that sometimes, 
when the sexes are unlike, thej ? can be associated only by obser- 
vations in the field. By careful collecting and observation we 
have procured practically all of our local species in both sexes, 
and the derived benefit, satisfaction and enjoyment have paid us 
fully for our time and pains. 
In the first place the mouthparts of the two sexes are differ- 
ent — the male lacks the mandibles which are present in the 
female. This makes it necessary for them to procure their food 
from different sources, the male obtains his from flowers, while 
the female lives by puncturing the skin and sucking the blood of 
warm-blooded vertebrates. Thus it is evident that during the 
time spent in procuring food the sexes cannot remain together. 
From an economic standpoint the female most concerns the 
student and she is often taken for study without an attempt being 
made to procure the male. 
At this point I can say collect females around horses, cattle and 
other animals, and males on flowers ; but this is not enough, for 
knowing the general habits of insects we are certain that there is 
a common ground where the two sexes may be found together. 
One finds this common ground in the vicinity of water, where 
their transformations take place and where their eggs are laid, 
also in various other places, which we shall take occasion to dis- 
cuss as we proceed. 
The females of all our local species of Chrysops with Tabanus 
pumilus and nivosus come buzzing around the collector in num- 
bers, and at such times may be taken easily with a net. Other 
species of Tabanus come near enough that the sound of their 
wings is recognizable, but are so active that it is almost impossi- 
ble to procure them. 
