90 B R I T I S H BLOOD-SUCKING FLIES
18. Small grey spec.es, with black and white pubescence ; postocular rim rather broader than
usual ; cheeks with black hairs at upper end, near bases of antennae ; eyes in life with
; Ze t t . (p. 107)
Larger browmsh-grey species, with pubescence distinctly yellowish; postocular rim
normal
19. No black hairs on upper end of cheeks ; abdomen sometimes a'httle'reddish near base^
eyes m life w.th a single band W» « . L m n . ( p . 108)
A few black hairs on upper end of cheeks ; abdomen usually reddish about sides of lirst
three segments ; eyes in life unhanded rniki Brauer (p. no)
Tabanus micans Meigen
(Fig. 25 and Plate 22)
This shining black species is distinguishable from T. bisignatus Jaenn.,
with which alone it is likely to be confused, by its having the legs entirely black'
The male has a bunch of long, erect, coarse black hairs at the tip of the first
segment of the front tarsi, and on the three following segments. Brauer (1880
p. 137) describes the eyes of the living male thus : "on the lower half with
three purple bands on a bright green ground, and purple-coloured lower margin ;
or bluish-violet, underneath with three green bands bordered with red." Thè
eyes of the female are green, with either three or four purple bands.
Specimens in the British Museum range in size from 13-5 in the males
and smaller females to 15-5 in the largest females.
In the British Isles T. micans is
•iklV:' undoubt edl y one of the rarest of
the representatives of its genus,
and at the present time the
Museum possesses only eleven
British examples. The species
has been recorded in isolated
localities from Hampshire to
Inverness, and Verrall could only
record it between June nth
and June 23rd (1909, p. 355). It
has since been taken in the second
half of May, and Continental
Fig. 25.-7'. micans Mg. Head.
records extend into August, but British captures seem to be restricted to May
and June (Carter's record from Loch Voil, Perthshire in 1919 is June 26th,
not July as printed by Goffe, 1931, P- 9i)- Goffe attributes the apparent rarity
of this species, in part at least, to its appearance early in the season when there
are fewer hot sunny days on which it might be conspicuously active. Me also
states that "Dr. F. H. Haines has taken it in numbers in the S. Dorset
marshes." Hamm (1933, P- 67), records having taken males of T. 7nicans,
near Oxford " sucking up moisture from a bare patch on the path."
This species appears to have been taken all over Europe except in Denmark
and Scandinavia ; it does not appear in Lundbeck's Danish list. Krober
(1924, p. 71) states that it occurs in the morning on Umbelliferae, especially
Heracleum.
B R A C H Y C E R A — T A B A N I D A E 91
Tabanus luridus Fallén
(Fig. 26 and Plate 25)
The shining frontal triangle or subcallus (the space between the lower inner
angles of the eyes and the bases of the antennae) distinguishes the female of
this species from montanus and from the pale form of bisignatzis, which it
somewhat resembles. In the male the frontal triangle is whitish-grey pollinose.
In both sexes the body as a whole is shining. Brauer (1880, p. 44) describes
the eyes of the male as " green, with three purple bands and red margin next
the face," and those of the female as " green, with three purple bands." The
eye of the male is without a conspicuous area of enlarged facets. It will be
observed that the specimen illustrated in Plate 25 has a small appendix to the
upper branch of the forked vein,
and in the females, at any rate, of
this species such an appendix is
not infrequently present.
Although France and Bohemia
are said to be included in its area
of distribution {cf. Séguy, 1926,
p. 151), T. luridus would nevertheless
appear to be characteristically
a northern species, which
has only been taken in one British
locality outside Scotland ; at
Whixall Moss, Salop, Mr. C. H.
F i g . 26.-7". luridus Fallén. Head.
W. Pugh took a male in June,
1934, and Mr. T. Hignett took females in June and July, 1936 (see Goffe, 1937,
p. 189). In a letter to Major Austen, Colonel Yerbury wrote: " In Scotland
this is the earliest of the Tabanidae. In May 1905, it was met with in numbers
near Nairn, where both sexes were found sitting on a sandy road. . . . Probably
all the Tabanidae seen by me in Scotland at this time of the year belonged to
this species." Mr. Goffe (in correspondence) tells me that in the Scottish
Highlands luridus is almost or quite over when montanus appears.
Krober (1925, p. 66) gives its distribution as north and central Europe and
Siberia. Lundbeck, speaking of Denmark (1907, p. 117) says luridus is
usually " only taken in single specimens."
Tabanus bisignatus Jaennicke
(? = T.paganus Fabricius)
(Fig. 27 and Plate 23)
This dark species often strongly resembles T. micans, but may at once be
distinguished by its having the tibiae red basally, contrasting with the allblack
legs of T. micans. The plate fairly represents an " average " female
specimen, but the extent of the lighter markings on the first two abdominal
segments varies from practically nothing to conspicuous lateral patches on the
first two segments. The males are very similar in appearance, except that
I