THE SO-CALLED BUGONIA OF THE ANCIENTS. 497 



marks ou the thorax; or else they are clothed with a liairy covering 

 of different colors. 



E. tenax is of a duller coloring than most of the sj^ecies of the family 

 and, in that respect, it has remarkable resemblance to a honeybee. 

 "This resemblance is so great (says Eeaumar, iv, p. 440)* that, accns- 

 tomed as I am to see bees, I hardly ever dared to take one of those 

 flies in my hand without hesitation. - - - The colors, the size, 

 the conformation, and the proportions of the different parts of the 

 body of these two insects, belonging to two different orders, are very 

 much alike. The bees have a slightly more elongated body, and their 

 head is proportionally smaller. The fly keeps the wings more or less 

 divaricated ; on the contrary bees at rest keep them above the abdo- 

 men, the one covering them over; but in sucking flowers, or collecting- 

 wax, they often have them divaricated. Both insects frequent flowers, 

 and behave upon them in more or less the same manner," etc. 



The coloring of the abdomen of the honeybees is variable; some 

 varieties have very distinct brownish-yellow crossbands at its base. 

 Just the same varieties occur in the coloring of the fly E. tenax. 



The fly appears in great abundance principally in autumn and, when 

 the days become chilly, in a semitori)id state, either sucking flowers or 

 crawling slowly upon walls and fences. 



The larva of E. tenax is the well-known rat-tailed larva {ver a qnenede 

 rat, so called for the first time by Reaumur, I. e. iv, p. 443); it is figured 

 in the same volume, plate xxx. A long tail, with a telescopic arrange- 

 ment tor prolonging or shortening it, enables the larvte to live several 

 inches deep in the water and to pump air from the surface. They 

 freipient putrid waters, sewers, etc., and crawl out of them to change 

 into pup;ii in the vicinity. The vitality of these larvje is said to be 

 extraordinary, and for this reason Linne gave it the name tenax " Hab- 

 itat in fimetis, cloacis, aquis putrescentibus vix prelot destruenda 

 larva" (Linne, Syst. Nat., 12th edit., p. 984, 1766). Kirby and Spence 

 (vol. IV, p. 189) say: " An inhabitant of muddy pools, it has occasion- 

 ally been taken up with the water used in paper-making, and, strange 

 to say, according to Linne {Fauna Sueeica) resisted without injury to 

 immense pressure given to the surrounding jjulp; like leather-coat Jack, 

 mentioned by Mr. Bell {Anatomy of Exprefision in Painting, 170), who, 

 from a similar force of muscle, could suffer carriages to drive over him 

 without receiving any injury." Geoflfroy (vol. ii, p. 521, 1762) repeats 

 the same story : " This larva also occurs in the pulp of rags from which 



* There is au evident error in Reaumur, I.e. iu the reference to the plate xxxi, 

 fig. 8. The true /i\ /enaa; is represented (rather inditi'erentlj^) on PI. xx, f. 7; com- 

 pare the explanation of this iigure on p. 283, Mouche en forme d'abeille, etc. J'late 

 XXXI, f. 8, is correctly quoted, 7. c, p. 474, and represents Eristalis arhustorum 9, 

 or some allied species. 



t Translation. "Lives in dungheaps, cesspools, putrescent waters: a roller even 

 will not kill it." 



SM 93 32 



