1942] 
Near die Tabaninse 
27 
mediate Mexican fauna hinders complete clarification of 
overlapping. 
Until the question of specific and subspecific or varietal 
status of certain forms and groups can be more definitely 
established, and the doubt removed regarding the applica- 
tion of certain names, there is little to be gained in question- 
ing whether occidentalis L. should replace lineola Fabr. as 
here recognized or to what form this early name should 
apply. 
Tabanus lineola Fabr. s. str. The original description is 
inadequate in certain crucial characters, and unfortunately, 
the probable type is represented at the Kiel Museum by only 
the thorax, wings, and first 2 abdominal segments. From 
among a series of forwarded specimens, Dr. 0. Schroder 
selected one with a reddish margined scutellum as closest 
to what remains of the type. The legs were originally 
described as “pedes nigri tibiis ferrugineis”, indicating 
black femora. If the type really had a red scutellum origi- 
nally, this would best fit schwardti below, and Maquart’s 
(1838) reference to hairy eyes in the male suggests presence 
of this form among early material. But since Fabricius 
described the prescutal lobes as “ferrugineo” without men- 
tioning the scutellum, the brown now present may be due to 
a translucency sometimes seen in worn, and pest-destroyed 
specimens where only the integument remains. In the ab- 
sence of certainty, it seems best for the present not to change 
the figured conception of Stone and Bequaert, though the 
discussions of both were more inclusive than their figures 
indicate. 
What I take to be the males of this form from Michigan 
and Arkansas (reared by Schwardt) have the areas of en- 
larged facets in the upper %, pale buff grey, hairs very short 
and sparce (“ostensibly bare” for key purposes), the thorax 
and scutellum subshiny cinereous, the vestiture sparce, all 
3 pairs of femora infuscated to the knees, the pale middorsal 
stripes narrow, the sublateral yellow ones, reduced and 
broken, the intervals extensive brown, not black, and giving 
a suggestion of the suffused, less contrasting pattern seen 
in scutellaris described below. The abdominal stripes of 
males from the Gulf Coast are more contrasting and regular. 
The female has a convergent, narrow front, its height 
