Tabanidae (Horse Flies) - Southern Africa's Boletim

Eyes bright green. Male eyes narrowly separated and upper eyefacets not enlarged and differentiated from lower facets. Thorax shining black, covered with long pale yellow hairs. Tibiae slightly reddish at base, but otherwise legs entirely black with black hairs. Wings light brown, stained along veins and with dark brown costal cell. Abdomen shining black with hind-margins of tergites pale yellow pollinose and basal three tergites orange at sides.

Original description by Chainey (with figures):
https://journals.co.za/doi/pdf/10.10520/AJA03040798_420

Known from Cape floristic region and Succulent karoo.

iNat observation:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/59344082

Bee-like and boldly marked. Head with clypeus bare and shiny, frons yellow tomented with linear callus. Antennal bases closely approximated. Thorax unmarked thorax with fine bronze pile. Femora black, pale at extreme apex, hairs medium long, white. Tibiae yellowish-white basally, and dark brown apically on basal three segments of middle and hind tarsi, fore tarsi entirely brown except for first segment. Wings yellow-brown, faintly smoky at the apex and along the hind margin. Abdomen conspicuously banded with orange hind borders to the segments.

Detailled description by Usher (with illustration):
https://journals.co.za/doi/pdf/10.10520/AJA03040798_756

Philoliche andrenoides is known from the Natal Drakensberg, from open grassland: Cathedral Peak area, and Hogsback.
An excellent bee-mimic with booming flight.

iNat observation: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/107323854

Length about 19 mm. Thorax black with a band of yellow-golden pile on the anterior, lateral and posterior margins. Legs slate-black, clothed with black and orange hair: femora chocolate-brown, tibiae and tarsi ochraceous-tawny. Wings brown with brown veins; cell r5 closed before wing margin, vein R4 with appendix. Abdomen unmarked, shiny black with a purplish tinge.

Original description by Macquart:
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/53388#page/468/mode/1up

Description by Austen as Phara nigripleuris (with illustration of head):
https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1096-3642.1937.tb00008.x

iNat observation:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/22130810

Western Cape endemic, known from Ceres; Paarl dist; Worcester dist; Cape Agulhas; Stellenbosch

Eyes green, distinctly hairy. Female head with distinct callus (raised cabochon-like callus, not connected to the ocellar tubercle).
Head, thoracic hairs and abdomen predominantly yellow-orange. Antennae bicolor: basal flagellomere orange, contrasting with black terminal segments.
Femora yellow-orange except at apices which are distinctly darker; tibiae yellow basally, brown at the tips, tarsi slightly darkened. Wings brown along the veins, with inconspicuous brown stigma.
Abdomen golden orange with median dark spots on the tergites.

Most of the species of subgenus Mesomyia are restricted to the mountains of the winter rainfall region.
Rhigioglossa aurantiaca is known from a few localities in the Western Cape (Hottentots-Holland Mts, E side, 1 200 m; Oudebosch, Riviersonderend; Kirstenbosch; Platteklip, Table Mountain; Wit River Valley, Bainskloof).

iNat observation: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/149636273

Lemgth 15-16 mm. Bee-like. Ocelli present, face not produced, without shining callus. Wings yellow with a distinct grey tip; cell r5 open. Thorax black with 5 yellow longitudinal stripes. Abdomen with distict pattern on the second segment: a bilobed black patch on yellow background, the subsequent segments are black with a yellow hind border.

Original description by Loew:
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/35325#page/36/mode/1up

Illustration by Austen:
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/75729#page/251/mode/1up

iNat observations:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?project_id=172971&taxon_id=683326&place_id=any&verifiable=any

Length 13 mm. Head with clypeus not protuberant, ocelli at vertex present. A blackish species, with a short stout abdomen marked with tomentose bands. Antennal bases widely separated. Antennae and palpi blackish, forehead very wide. Face covered with long white hairs; beard thick and white. Legs red. Thorax black covered with thick fulvous tomentum and with pale longitudinal bands and white tufts of hair are apparent above and below the root of wings.
Abdomen stout, the ground colour black, the segments with tomentose bands on the posterior borders, alternating yellow and white: white on the second and forth segment; yellow hind borders of the other segments. (The albifacies form may have only grey bands).
Wings hyaline, the reddish veins shaded pale brown, most noticeable on the transverse veins; cell r5 open; vein R4 with appendix.

Original description by Macquart:
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/53388#page/469/mode/1up

Description by Ricardo (Corizoneura albifacies):
Ricardo, G. 1914. List of South African Tabanidae (Diptera) in the South African Museum, with descriptions of new species. Ann. s. Afr. Mus. 10
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/17383#page/666/mode/1up

This species occurs in the Cape (Albany Thicket; Cape floristic region (fynbos); Succulent karoo); records from: Cape Agulhas type locality; Ceres; Swellendam; Mossel Bay; Jeffreys Bay; Humansdorp; Zwartkop, Gqeberha; Groot Rivier, Plettenberg Bay Dist; Kasouga Dunes, Port Alfred Dist; Bathurst Dist.; Port Alfred; Wilderness; Strandfontein.

iNat observations:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/172194039
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/63360857

This species has been described under several names and occurs in several forms:
Chrysops confluens Loew, 1858
Chrysops fuscus Ricardo, 1902
Chrysops natalis Macquart, 1846
Chrysops stigmaticalis Loew, 1858

Thorax black with pale longitudinal stripes, usually with yellow tufts of hairs on the pronotum and pleurae. Abdomen black, may have grey tomentum or pale hind borders on the segments. Wings with oblique irregular crossband (of variable pattern) and maybe clear spots. Legs bicolor (different according to form).

The differences between these forms can be checked with Ricardo's key to the forms (then different species)
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/19331655#page/393/mode/1up

Original description by Macquart:
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/109528#page/163/mode/1up

Description by Loew (Chrysops stigmaticalis):
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/35325#page/47/mode/1up
with illustration of wing (fig 18): https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/35325#page/351/mode/1up

Description by Loew (Chrysops confluens):
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/35325#page/48/mode/1up
with illustration of wing (fig 19): https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/35325#page/351/mode/1up

Description by Ricardo (Chrysops fuscus):
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/19331655#page/394/mode/1up

Photos of syntype (MNHM Paris):
https://www.gbif.org/ru/occurrence/1265038324

Illustration of Chrysops stigmaticalis in Austen:
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/75729#page/247/mode/1up

Length 13-14 mm. Callus well defined, shiny black. A predominantly black species. Abdomen black with white hind borders on all segments and yellow sublateral patches on the first two segments. Wings yellow-brown tinted, cell r5 closed before margin; cell m3 closed at wing margin.

This species is known from Zimbabwe, Mozambique and South Africa.

Photos and description in Smit, A. 2019:
https://repository.up.ac.za/bitstream/handle/2263/76793/Smit_Abundance_2019.pdf?sequence=1

Head yellowish- or whitish-grey, with dark markings; thorax, including scutellum, olive-brown, greyish pollinose. Abdomen black, fourth, fifth and sixth segments and also hind borders of second and third clothed with short, oppressed, shining, orange hair; dorsum of second and third segments, except sides, or at least posterior angles, and hind borders, clothed with minute black hairs.
Wings light mummy-brown, the colour usually more intense next the veins, costal cells and stigma ochraceous; wing cell m3 closed at margin.

Original description by Austen:
Austen, Ernest E. (1910). On Tabanidæ collected in North-Eastern Rhodesia and Katanga, Congo Free State, By Dr. S. and Mr. S. A. Neave, with Descriptions of new species. Bulletin of Entomological Research, 1(4), 275–. doi:10.1017/s0007485300044047
https://sci-hub.ee/10.1017/s0007485300044047

Illustration in Austen 1910:

This species is known from DR Congo, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and South Africa (Mkuze).

iNat observations:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/150945885
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/148893465

Gray-brown, thorax with white lines. Abdomen brown-rufous with brown central longitudinal band, marked with three whitish triangles on the second, third and fourth segments. Abdominal segments 5-7 darker than segments 1-4. Wings greyish-hyaline, with brown-shaded transverse veins.
It is easily confused with Tabanus taeniola but has only three distinct median abdominal triangles.

Description by Macquart:
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/53417#page/35/mode/1up

Description by Loew (Tabanus trisignatus):
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/35325#page/57/mode/1up
with illustration of abdomen (fig 20): https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/35325#page/351/mode/1up

Description by Walker (Tabanus bipartitus):
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/132891#page/455/mode/1up

Illustration in Austen:
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/75729#page/259/mode/1up

Illustration of wing in:
Lamerton, J. F. 1962. Key to the Tabanidae of Tanganyika. E. Afr. agric. J. 28 ( 1 ) : 40-54

Distributed from South Africa (several records from KZN) to Ethiopia.

iNat observations:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/18716714
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/42246616