488 THE SO-CALLED BUGONIA OF THE ANCIENTS. 



The original cause of tbis delusion lies in the fact that a very com- 

 inoii fly, scientifically called ^ri.s^rf/ys tenn.v (poi)ularly the drone fly), 

 lays its eggs iii)ou carcasses of animals, that its larvfe develop within 

 the putrescent mass, and finally change into a swarm of flies which, in 

 their shape, hairy clothing and color, look exactly like bees, although 

 they belong to a totally different order of insects. Bees belong to the 

 Order Hymenoptera, and have four wings; the female is provided with 

 a sting at the end of the body; the fly Eristalis belongs to the Order 

 Diptera, has only tMO wings and no sting. 



The final extinction of this absurd notion among civilized nations 

 was due to two causes : 



(1) Among scientific men, to the confutation of the old belief in spon- 

 taneous generation, and the general recognition of the principle: onitie 

 vivuni ex ovo, proclaimed by William Harvey (1651), and by the great 

 Italian naturalist, Eedi (1668).* 



(2) Among the ignorant crowd, to the introduction of a sanitary 

 police, which prevents carcasses from lying about and affording the 

 spectacle of bee-like flies swarming around them. 



Modern commentators of Greek and Latin authors have treated the 

 Bugonia with a contemptuous sneer,t without taking into consideration 

 that a superstition so universal and so persistent can not be dismissed 

 so easily, and must necessarily have some foundation in fact. The 

 refutation of an error is not complete until the source of the error is 

 revealed. In a short paper on the geographical distribution of the fly, 

 Eristalis tenex (Entoni. M. Mag., xxiii, p. 97-99, London, 1886), I intro- 

 duced incidentally the explanation of the Buf/o7iia, founded upon a 

 resemblance of this fly to the honey-bee. Already at that time it seemed 

 strange to me that such an obvious and simple explanation had never 

 been proposed before. Since then I have undertaken a regular search 

 in entomological literature in order to ascertain if any approach to such 

 a solution could be found in previous writers, and to inquire into the 

 causes that had delayed it so long. I shall now attempt to give an 

 account of my inquiry and to show that, as soon as certain conditions, 

 necessary for the confutation of that error were fulfilled, the error dis- 

 appeared of itself. 



The principal factor underlying the whole intellectual j)henomenon 



"Francesco Redi's work, Esperienze intorno alia generazione degVinsetii, appeared iu 

 Florence, 1668. F. Redi, born iu Arezzo, 1626; died in Pisa, 1697. He was the phy- 

 sician of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, and at the same time a naturalist, a poet and 

 a literary personage iu general. His letters are charming. I possess a Neapolitan 

 edition of his comjdete works in seven volumes, dated 1778, and shall quote from it. 



tFor instance, Joh. Beckmanu, commentator of Antigonus Caristius, Joh. H. 

 Voss, translator and commentator of the Georgics, etc. I owe my acquaintance 

 with these books to Prof. Zangemeister, director of the University Library in Hei- 

 delberg. The commentaries of Prof. Martyn on the Georgica (London, 1741),. which 

 I find quoted in Smith's Diction. Biogr. and Mythol., etc., I have not been able to 

 consult. 



