Family 7. March Flies. TABANIDAE. These flies are large or moderate sized insects, with broad heads furnished with a fleshy proboscis well adapted for biting; the 4-jointed antennae stand out in front of the head and do not terminate in a bristle; in the male the large eyes meet in front, but in the female are separated; the wings are large, often long, and well adapted for flight; the legs moderately stout; and the abdomen long, broad, and somewhat flattened. They are common in the early summer months in open forest country, and are popularly known in Australia as “March Flies”; in England and America they usually go under the name of “Horse or Gad Flies,” and are a great pest to both man and horse; they are so persistent in their endeavours to bite and suck up blood that they are very easily captured with the hand. The larvae of TABANIDAE live in damp earth, or are found in water; they are carnivorous, feeding upon larvae and pond snails. The flies deposit their eggs in bunches on herbage or low shrubs. These flies are very interesting from an economic point of view, for they are said to be sometimes responsible for outbreaks of anthrax by introducing the bacillus when biting. Some years ago an outbreak of malignant pustules on cattle in New Caledonia was said to have been traced to an undetermined species of _Pangonia_ (Megnin and Germain, Bulletin Soc. Ent. France Vol. viii. ser. 5). The Genus _Pangonia_ is well represented in this country by many large handsome flies that differ from the typical _Tabanus_ in having ocelli, and the third joint of the antennae elongate instead of compressed. _Pangonia guttata_ was figured by Donovan in his “Insects of New Holland”; it measures over 1 inch in length, and is broad in proportion; its general colour is black, clothed with little tufts of white downy hairs fringing the thorax in front of the wings, and forming a band round the outer edge, with similar spots down the centre of the abdominal segments; the under-surface is variegated with longer white and black hairs, and the wings are clouded with black. This large handsome fly is common in the coastal forests, usually found resting on tree trunks in the heat of the day. _P. rufovittata_ is a smaller more showy insect of a dull yellow colour. The eyes, parallel markings on the thorax, and broad transverse bands on the abdomen of black, the alternate abdominal bands of beautiful golden hairs, together with the yellow clouded wings, give it a very striking appearance; it also has a wide range over Australia, and is occasionally taken in the neighbourhood of Sydney. _P. auriflus_, about ½ an inch in length, also black, has the face, front of thorax, under-surface and outer margins of the abdomen clothed with silvery hairs, while the hind margin of the thorax, a blotch in the centre, and the tip of the abdomen are richly coloured with bright yellow hairs. _P. concolor_, a much larger fly, is