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Hello,

last night in the garden (northwest Germany) I tried to attract Lepidoptera and other insects with two lamps, when I heard a deep buzz. I thought, some kind of big beetle (sometimes some Necrophorus come to the light) was flying into the wintergarden. But when I looked, I saw this large Tabanus resting at the ceiling. It was even larger than a 24 mm T. autumnalis I measured some years ago.

Can it be a female Tabanus sudeticus? I saw that species (supposed) only a few times in the last 15 years, but never managed t to take a photo.

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Yes, it is. Tabanus sudeticus is common in colder stands in middle and higher altitudes. From my experiance from western parts of the Czech Republic, it prefers bogs, swamps and wet meadows.

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Thanks a lot, Libor!

my previous observations were on a relative humid meadow near a small creek (2019) and on a meadow with a swampy valley (many years ago).

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On this side of the Atlantic, they don’t come any bigger.


Theo