354 Mr. W. S. MacLeay on the Insect 



and in Latin tahanus. The tahani 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 [jbuay^ (ccEcutiens) 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 cacutiens. Now it appears from Aristotle, 

 that the o'lfr^oi* and fA,ua-^ were insects extremely near each other 

 in aflSnity ; 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 IfJi/irgoa-doxivr^Uy "ouJev ^'eVt* ^hn^ov oma-06- 

 xevT^ov." Now this, by the way, proves not only that the oto-r^og 

 was not the modern CEstrus, but moreover that Aristotle could 

 never have seen a modern CEstrus attack cattle ; for had he seen 

 it, he would most assuredly have deemed it oirt<r6oKsvr^oq. And yet 

 he must have seen his o'l'trr^og about cattle ; for he states positively 

 not only that the oitrr^ol pierce the hides of quadrupeds, but that 

 they are armed with a strong tongue, and are blood-suckers 

 (a;j«,o£o|>a ^eoa). In both these last respects it is to be observed, 

 that they differ totally from the modern CEstrus, but perfectly 

 agree, as M. Latreille has well said, with the Linnsean Tabani. 



^lian describes the oia-r^os and fji^vuip in the same way as Ari- 

 stotle. They are both most inimical to cattle (j8oo(r}i'g;j^^;(rTa). The 

 oUrgog he states to be one of the largest flies (xara roig [jt^vfag rci; 

 y.eyia-Tct.g), having a strong sting in its mouth, and uttering a 



* OTffTgoj is a name also applied by Aristotle to some small insectivorous bird, and 

 to some species of the Ci/mothoadte, which is parasitical about the fins of the Tunny. 

 PUny also appears to apply the word CEstrus to the drone (lib. ii. c. 16.). 



particular 



