94 UTILIZATION OF MINUTE LIFE. 



tharides is owed to some other principle as yet 

 unknown, as Schroff has lately shown. 



M. Babinet has informed me that in some 

 parts of France, more especially in Poitou, ash-trees 

 are never planted, because the quantity of Cantha- 

 rides that breed upon these trees soon becomes 

 intolerable to the inhabitants of the district. 



In our climate, Cantharides are to be found upon 

 the lilac, the privet, and some other shrubs. They 

 are very plentiful in Spain (hence their appellation, 

 " Spanish fly"), Italy, Sicily, etc., but comparatively 

 rare in England, where they are only to be met 

 with now and then in the southern counties. 



Of these beetles, the CantTiarides vesicatoria of 

 Geoffrey and Latreille is most frequently found in 

 commerce ; it is distinguished by its strong and 

 peculiar odour, its wing-sheaths or elytra of metallic 

 green, and its black antennas or horns. In America, 

 two other species, namely, Cantharides cinerea and 

 C. vittata, being extremely common and noxious 

 insects, are more frequently used than C. vesicatoria. 

 In India, C. gigas and C. violacea are employed ; in 

 Sumatra and Java, C. rificeps ; in Brazil, C. atoma- 

 ria ; in Arabia, C. syriaca in China, certain species 

 of Mylabris, a genus closely allied to Cantharides. 



The real Spanish fly, C. vesicatoria, Latr., is 

 imported into Liverpool from Italy at the average 

 rate of three hundredweight per annum. 



