29 
short distance along the sides, the almost velvet-black colour pre¬ 
dominating above. 
As in bovinus, there is a central row of spots, but when type 
specimens of the two kinds are examined side by side the black 
ground colour of sudeticus catches the eye at once. Also it is con¬ 
sidered to fly earlier in the year —sudeticus in May and middle of 
June, bovinus end of June, July, and August. 
The following short notes of method of transformation of 
T. bovinus of Linnaeus and De Geer, of which no author had 
previously written, are abridged from the accounts of M. De Geer 
of his own observations.* 
During the month of May, whilst searching in the earth of a 
meadow, M. De Geer found many maggots (larvae), and having shut 
up seven or eight of these in a box filled with fresh earth, he ob¬ 
served, on June 12th (1760), that one of these larvae had taken the 
form of a chrysalis (or pupa), and bad come half out of the earth, 
whilst the rest of the body was buried in it. Only three others of 
the larvae were to be found living in the box, which afterwards 
similarly changed to chrysalis state—coming similarly half out of 
the earth; and, as besides these there was only one small dead 
larva to be found, this was considered to point to the others having 
been devoured by those which had arrived at transformation. 
Since then, the fact of maggots of the Tabanidee living on grubs, 
or similar ground-living creatures, has been entomologically re¬ 
corded.— (E. A. 0.) 
The largest larva measured by M. De Geer was an inch and a 
half in length when fully extended, and nearly a fifth in breadth at 
the middle of the body, and was noted as much resembling those 
of the large Tipulce (Daddy Longlegs or Crane Flies), which live in 
the earth. The shape was cylindrical, of nearly equal thickness 
throughout, though lesser towards the head, so that the foremost 
part was somewhat conical; the tail extremity was also somewhat 
pointed, but not as much prolonged as the head end, and it bears a 
small tubercle at the termination. 
The colour of the larva was dirty yellowish white, with roughish 
or somewhat raised bands of a blackish colour on the fore part of 
the fourth, fifth, and following segments to the tenth inclusive, 
these encircling the body like hoops. These segments have towards 
* See ‘ MAmoires pour servir a l’histoire des Insectes,’ par M. le Baron 
Charles De Geer, p. 214. Tome sixi^me. Stockholm, 1776. Also, for extracts 
at greater length than the above, my ‘ Nineteenth Annual Report on Injurious 
Insects,’ p. 125. 
