The Aberystwyth Area 
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VII. Tabanus sudeticus Zeller. After examining a very con¬ 
siderable series of females and comparing them minutely with Verrall’s 
descriptions of both T. bovinus and T. sudeticus, I consider the local 
specimens to be referable to the latter species. I also obtained one 
male, resting on Calluna at an elevation of 800 feet near Pontrhydgroes, 
September 2nd, 1916, which is undoubtedly sudeticus. 
All authors however admit that these two species are difficult to 
identify, and Verrall 1 (p. 392) says “ Even the very large species T. bovinus 
has been separated into two species which have been confounded for 
more than eighty years, and in this work I have recorded specimens 
which do not clearly answer to either of these two.” This Tabanus is 
abundant in the Area, and ranges widely. During the summer of 1916 
it was particularly plentiful and attacked all farm stock indiscriminately 
causing great annoyance, more especially among working horses, which 
were driven frantic and rendered difficult to control. The smaller 
species were as nothing compared with this great fly. 
Their abundance may be judged when I say that I could easily fill 
a killing bottle in half-an-hour from a pair of horses during the hay 
harvest (at Crosswood) and a waggoner killed between twenty and 
thirty on one horse during a morning’s horse hoeing. 
I noted three sucking a newly-born calf and three upon one pig, 
while I was able to grab three with one stroke of the hand, from a cart 
mare. 
The flight is most powerful, and the deep hum produced terrifies 
cattle, I was interested to observe a Hereford calf of six weeks old 
which was attacked while out in the open. This young animal did not 
rush to its mother near by, but instantly galloped to a small open stream 
about 100 yards away and stood in that facing upstream, and I did 
not again see the calf molested while standing in the water. It is 
interesting to note that with horses the lower fore legs and feet are the 
parts most frequently attacked, but sometimes the back is also selected. 
In cattle, the sides and belly are attacked, whilst in sheep the middle 
of the back is almost invariably chosen, and the same applies to pigs. 
I have seen a few settle upon the legs of men working in the field. 
Cattle, although'greatly irritated, seem to be bitten but seldom, a free 
use of horns and tail keeping the fly from settling long enough to bite; 
I observed a cow, with her tongue, kill a specimen of T. distinguendus 
that had settled under the brisket, 
I have sat among a herd of cattle sheltering under the shade of a 
1 Verrall, op. cit. p. 392. 
