Tabanus taeniola Palisot de Beauvois, 1807

Mugasa, Claire M., Villinger, Jandouwe, Gitau, Joseph, Ndungu, Nelly, Marc Ciosi, & Masiga, Daniel, 2018, Morphological re-description and molecular identification of Tabanidae (Diptera) in East Africa, ZooKeys 769, pp. 117-144 : 117

Tabanus taeniola Palisot de Beauvois, 1807 Fig. 3D

Location.

Tarangire, Nguruman, Shimba Hills, Kenya

Descriprion.

Head. Head wider than thorax with long white parafacial hair (Suppl. material 2: Figure S4A). Eyes dark green in freshly collected specimen without any band; on preservation in ethanol, green colour is lost and eyes remain black. Palps with white hair; labellum black (Suppl. material 2: Figure S4B). Antennae brown and black (typical of genus Tabanus ). Scape and pedicel orange-brown with black hair. Flagellum orange-brown at base and darkens towards dark brown to black annulations (Suppl. material 2: Figure S4B). Eyes separated by narrow pale brown frons with black and brown hair with brown bell-shaped callus that does not taper posteriorly (Suppl. material 2: Figure S4C).

Descriprion.

Thorax. Thorax greyish black with black and whitish hair and median whitish stripe almost reaching posterior end of thorax. Sub-lateral stripes (st) ashy grey, distinctly visible with white hair and continue to posterior mesonotum. Scutellum brown with indistinct hair. Hair tufts at postalar area whitish to golden brown. Halteres yellowish white (Suppl. material 2: Figure S4C). The distal 1/3 of fore tibia blackish brown with black hair, proximal 2/3 light brown/yellow. Fore femur greyish black with black and long silver-white hair and black tibia with black hair. Hind tibia (Suppl. material 2: Figure S4D) yellowish brown with black and white hair and hind femur greyish black with white hair; tarsus light brown with black hair. Middle leg similar to hind leg.

Abdomen. Abdomen orange brown and black, tapers posteriorly such that last segment appears pointed. Abdomen with two peri-median longitudinal orange rectangular bands that progressively darken to dark brown then to black on fifth and sixth segment. Peri-median longitudinal bands enclosing lighter coloured median stripe starts anteriorly as white, becomes orange then finally darkens to light brown on sixth segment. Seventh segment completely black (Suppl. material 2: Figure S4A). Ventro-medially, fine black recumbent hair that gives abdomen dark brown appearance.

Figures

Figure 3. Whole tabanid flies. A Ancala fasciata, discal cell (dc) B Tabanus thoracinus, discal cell (dc), haltare (ht) C Tabanus donaldsoni, distinct R 4 appendix (px) D Tabanus taeniola, median stripe (ms), parafacial hair (pf), antennae (at), labellum (lbl), palpus (lp) E Tabanus taeniola variatus, medial triangles (mt), peri-median bands (pm) F Tabanus gratus, haltares (ht), comma shaped shades (cm) G Tabanus guineensis H Atylotus nigromaculatus, eyes with thin black horizontal line (hl) I Atylotus diurnus, haltares (ht), wing with indistinct appendix (px) J Haematopota duttoni K Haematopota fenestralis, double white streak (ds) L Chrysops distinctipennis, hair tufts (hf), bifurcating band (bf).