48 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [February, 



and it is possible that the present species may have similar habits. I shall 

 be glad if further investigation of this plant will throw more light upon 

 the habits of the fly. The specimen was from near Colorado Springs. 

 S. W. WILLISTON, Lawrence, Kansas. 



ON THE BUGONIA SUPERSTITION OF THE ANCIENTS. Baron C. R. 



Osten Sacken writes in " Nature" for Dec. 28, 1893: Last August I pub- 

 lished in the " Bulletin Soc. Entomol. Italiana" 1893, pp. 186-217, an ar- 

 ticle entitled, " On the Bugonia of the Ancients, and its relation to Eris- 

 talis tenax, a two-winged insect." I desire to collect some more materials 

 on that subject, in view of a second edition, and I would be very grateful 

 to readers of '' Nature" who may be able to give me assistance in that 

 matter. 



The information I require may be expressed in two questions: 



(1) Whether travelers in out-of-the-way places in Europe or Asia have 

 not come across vestiges of the superstition about oxen-born bees, still 

 lingering among primitive people? 



(2) Whether readers of Oriental literature have not come across pas- 

 sages evidently referring to this superstition, like the passage I reproduce 

 here as an example. I found it in the " Golden Meadows" of the Arab 

 traveler Massoudi (died in Cairo, 955), translated by Barbier de Meynard 

 and Pavet de Courteille, Paris, 1861, vol. iii, p. 233. It relates a conver- 

 sation which took place in Arabia, and of which this is a fragment: " ' Had 

 the bees, which produced this honey, deposited it in the body of a large 

 animal?' asked Yiad. The surveyor answered: ' Hearing that there was 

 a hive near the sea-coast I sent people to gather the honey. They told 

 me that they had found at that place a heap of bones, more or less rotten, 

 in the cavity of which bees had deposited the honey that they brought 

 with them.' " 



Baron Osten Sacken, whose address is Heidelberg, Germany, would 

 be happy to send a copy of his original paper to any one interested in 

 the subject. 



TRAILED BY A TIGER. (Perils of a scientist now visiting in Pittsburgh). 

 Mr. William Doherty has been recently spending a few days with Dr. 

 Holland at his residence on Fifth Avenue. He is one of the most daring 

 and successful travelers and explorers, who has risen from the ranks of 

 the American people, though he is known to comparatively a limited 

 circle of friends, who have been his reliance in his adventurous under- 

 takings. He is a Cincinnatian by birth, and is descended from the Scotch- 

 Irish settlers of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, whose bold stand 

 in favor of independence in pre-revolutionary days is historic. He was 

 graduated at the University of Cincinnati, and went in 1878 to Paris in 

 charge of a portion of the exhibit sent to the Paris exposition by the 

 United States Department of Agriculture. After remaining in Paris six 

 months in the discharge of his duties there, he resolved to spend some 

 time in travel, and visited the countries of Kurope lying along the Medi- 

 terranean. He spent a year in Greece, then a year in Egypt. After tra- 



