8 
Psyche 
[March 
A NOTE ON THE EARLY STAGES OF 
LEPISELAGA CRASSIPES FAB. 
(DIPT., TABANID^E) 
By G. B. Fairchild, 
Junior Entomologist, 
Gorgas Memorial Laboratory, 
Panama, R. de P. 
Information about the early stages of Neotropical Tabani- 
dae may almost be said to be non-existent. Bodkin and 
Cleare (1916) have given a brief description of the larvae 
and a figure of the pupal aster of Tabanus desertus Wlk. 
Ad. Lutz (1920, 1922 and 1928) has mentioned raising a few 
species from larvae, and has described a method of rearing 
using agar as a medium (1920), but so far as I am aware 
these are the only descriptions or figures of larvae or pupae 
of any of the many Neotropical forms that have ever been 
published. 
Inasmuch as the classification of the Tabanidae, so far 
based entirely on adult characters, is in a very unsatisfac- 
tory condition, I feel that any information about the struc- 
ture and habits of the early stages is very important, and 
may throw some much needed light on the relationships of 
the many forms. 
The present species has apparently been reared more 
often than any other, and has been mentioned several times 
in the literature. Ad. Lutz (1928) raised a single adult 
from a larva collected in plants of Pistia stratiotes, the 
water lettuce, in Venezuela, and gives an unrecognizable 
figure of the pupal shell. Dunn (1934) also raised the 
adults from larvae taken in the same habitat in Panama, 
but says nothing about the appearance of either larva or 
pupa. 
During the early months of 1929, while searching for 
mosquito larvae in the floating vegetation along the Chagres 
