492 THE SO-CALLEt) BUGOKIA OF THE ANCIENT8. 



Blankaait {Scliaii2>Iatz dcr R<mj>en, WurtHcry etc.; JJutcb edit., 1088; 

 Geinian edit., 1(590) describes and tigurcs the larva, i)upa, and imago 

 of j&. tenax. Tlie larva lie calls (after Goedart) Schtvein-Made. Of tlie 

 imago, lie says, "eiue Art vou zalimen Bienen {Musca (qnform is) mit 

 z\Yci Fliigelii," etc. ("A kiud of tame bees witli wings".) He adds: 

 " Quite different from wbat Goedart tauglit us," a reproach wbicb, I 

 have shown, is undeserved. 



Swammerdaurs (1(;37-1680) principal work, the " Biblia natune " 

 (Leyden, 1737-38; in German, Leipzig, 1858), was published more than 

 half a century after his death. 



Swammerdam, in two i)assages of his " Biblia," comes very near con- 

 necting J'Jristalis tenax with the Bugonia, and it is only his bias for a 

 literary interpretation of a scriptural text which prevents him from 

 taking the last step that was needed. In his chapter on bees (pp. 

 210-212) he says that because bees are cleanly animals, and never alight 

 on carcasses, the story of Samson has appeared to many strange and 

 incredible. He offers an explanation very similar to that of Bochart* 

 (whom he does not quote and does not seem to know), that the lion was 

 not a corpse, but a skeleton. It was in the height of summer; the 

 larvae of certain tlies always occurring in carcasses have, in a very short 

 time, devoured all the tlesh; the remaining skeleton was soon freed 

 from all bad smells by the combined action of sun, rain, and dew; 

 under such circumstances it is possible ("es lUsst sich ohuschwer 

 begreifen ") that the skeleton may have become the, habitation of bees 

 during the swarming season (/. c, p. 211, right column). On page 212, 

 Swammerdam continues: "This story of Samson and his bees, mis- 

 understood as it was, has undoubtedly given rise to the common ignor- 

 ant craze that bees originate from lions, oxen, and horses. The craze 

 was probably confirmed by the sight of the great mass of worms which 

 occur in such carcasses in summer, the more so as these worms are 

 somewhat ("einigermassen") like the larv;e of bees. This apparent 

 resemblance has undoubtedly fortified this error, which, ridiculous and 

 groundless as it is, has found advocates even among the most learned 

 men. The laborious Goedart has not hesitated to make bees breed 

 from dung-worms, and the learned De Mey has shared his opinion, 

 although what he took for a bee was nothing but a fly, which looked 

 somewhat bee-like," etc. 



In a later part of this work (/. c, pp. 25G-257) Swammerdam gives a 

 detailed description (Avith figures) of the three stages of UH, stalls tenax. 

 He notices (/. c, p. 257 at the bottom) that the fly has been frequently 

 taken for a bee, and that Augerius Clutius,t in his little work on bees, 



* Bochart's explanation -will bo given fiirtlier on. 



tTheodor Angur Clutins, also called Dirck Cluyt, apothecary and botanist in 

 Leyden, at the end of the sixteenth and the beginning of the next centurJ^ His 

 book: On Bees (Yande Bieu, etc.), appeared in Leyden in 1597 and had seven edi- 

 tions, the last in 1705. I borrow these statements from H. A. Hagen's Bibliotheca 



