354 Mr. W.S: MacLeay on the Insect 
and in Latin tabanus. The tabani are unfortunately insects too 
common for their name to have ever been forgotten ; and know- 
ing what the country people in France call taons, we know the 
insects which Pliny anciently termed tabani. By comparing 
Pliny with Aristotle, we find that he invariably translates the 
word uja} (cæcutiens) by the Latin word tabanus; and entomo- 
logists know well that this Greek name is extremely appropriate 
to the modern tabani or taons, which are so remarkable for their 
eyes, that a common species of Chrysops has at the present day 
the trivial epithet of cecutiens. Now it appears from Aristotle, 
that the o/zrgo; * and sow were insects extremely near each other 
in affinity ; they are almost always mentioned by him together, 
and agree in every respect but that wherein Aristotle was least 
likely to be accurate, namely, their mode of generation. In de- 
scription they always accord ; they are both diptera, and there- 
fore he says necessarily &wzegoslózevron, “ ovdiv Deer: dirrepoy ómioó- 
zevreov.” Now this, by the way, proves not only that the o/zzeoc 
was not the modern Œstrus, but moreover that Aristotle could 
never have seen a modern Œstrus attack cattle ; for had he seen 
it, he would most assuredly have deemed it orsméoxevrgog. And yet 
he must have seen his c/zzgo; about cattle ; for he states positively 
not only that the oízzzói pierce the hides of quadrupeds, but that 
they are armed with a strong tongue, and are blood-suckers 
(&moGoex Caw). In both these last respects it is to be observed, 
that they differ totally from the modern Œstrus, but perfectly 
agree, as M. Latreille has well said, with the Linnæan Tabani. 
Ælian describes the sergo and usc in the same way as Ari- 
stotle. They are both most inimical to cattle (Bovoirtydiora). The 
eiereos he states to be one of the largest flies (zara rag puias rats 
veyiores), having a strong sting in its mouth, and uttering a 
* Olereos is a name also applied by Aristotle to some small insectivorous bird, and 
to some species of the Cymothoade, which is parasitical about the fins of the Tunny. 
Pliny also appears to apply the word Œstrus to the drone (lib. ii, c. 16.). 
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