DIP TER A. 
455 
Fig. 540.— Tabanus at- 
ratus. 
The larger species, as well as some of moderate size, 
belong to the genus Tabanus (Ta-ba'nus), of which nearly 
one hundred American spe¬ 
cies are known. One of the 
most common of these is the 
Mourning Horse-fly, Tabanus 
atratus (T. a-tra'tus). This 
insect is of an uniform black 
color throughout, except that 
the body may have a bluish 
tinge (Fig. 540). 
To the genus Chrysops 
(Chry'sops) belong the smaller 
and more common horse-flies with banded wings (Fig. 54 1 )* 
Nearly fifty North American species of this genus have 
been described. 
Family STRATIOMYII DM (Strat-i-o-my-i'i-doe). 
The Soldier-flies . 
The soldier-flies are so called on account of the bright- 
colored stripes with which some of the species are marked. 
In the more typical mem¬ 
bers of this family the abdo¬ 
men is broad and greatly 
flattened (Fig. 542), and the 
wings when at rest lie parallel 
upon each other over the ab¬ 
domen. But in some genera 
the abdomen is narrow and 
considerably elongate. 
The antennae vary greatly 
in form; in some genera the third segment is long and con¬ 
sists of several quite distinct rings (I H ig- 543 ) > in others it is 
short with but few indistinctly-separated rings and with a 
bristle (Fig. 544), as in the true true short-horned flies. 
The most distinctive characteristic is the peculiar vena 
Fig 543. 
Fig. 544. 
