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XX. On the Insect called Oistros by the Ancient Greeks, andAsilus 

 hy the Romans. By William Sharp Mac Leay, Esq., M.A. F. L.S. 

 Communicated by the Zoological Club of the Linnean Society. 



Read March l6, 1824. 



Th e determination of the animals and plants mentioned by the 

 ancient writers must always be a pleasing subject of research, 

 tending, as it does, not merely to our better comprehension of the 

 meaning of these authors, but also to our better acquaintance 

 with the mysteries of nature. Every classical reader, as well as 

 every entomologist, is familiar with the word Oestrus as the name 

 of one of the most celebrated insects of antiquity. The insect 

 itself, however, 



" cui nomen Asilo 

 " Romanum est, CEstron Graii vertere vocantes," 



VlRG. Georg. iii. 147., 



has not for this been the more accurately determined ; and Oli- 

 vier is the first modern naturalist who appears to have suspected 

 that the CEstrus of the ancients and the (Estrus of the moderns 

 are totally different insects. With an exception in favour of 

 Messrs. Latreille, Kirby and Spence, this curious remark seems 

 not to have excited much attention ; although it may easily be 

 proved, that Olivier has come much nearer the truth than those 

 who hold the contrary opinion. 



In investigations of the following nature, it is not only advan- 

 tageous but necessary to begin from some fixed and indisputable 

 position. Now such I take to be the identity of the insects 

 termed in French taon ; in Spanish tavano ; in Italian tabano ; 

 virhjiic; and 



