Eristalis tenax in Chinese and Japanese literature. 145 



book XIV, p. 15), refutes the assertion of Chinese autliors about the 

 peculiar habit of bees in preparing honey. Kaibara was one of the 

 pioneers of natural history in Japan after the revival of learning. 

 l'he above-quoted work was completed when he was 79 years old. 

 Another Japanese work, by Ryöan Terashinia: „The illustrated Cy- 

 clopedia of Thrce Systems of Japan and China" (Wakan Sansai Dzue), 

 probably the greatest Cyclopedia Japan has ever produced (published 

 1713 in 1U5 volumes), contains (Book 53, p, 540 of the new edition 

 1884) not only a description of Eristalis tenax, but a very distinct 

 description and tigure of its larva (on p. 520). Mr. K. M. renders 

 these two passages as follows: 



„A kind of fly, shaped like a bee, but bigger, round and fat, 

 coloured yellow and black ; the worm, feeding on ordure, after moul- 

 ting, changes into this insect. They are abundant in the season when 

 tnrnips blossem; the nectar of herbaceous flowers they suck; they 

 do no härm either by sting or by bite. They huni with their wings, 

 wliose sound is like saying „ßun Bun" (which is the Japanese nanie 

 of the fly)." 



„The larva, vulgarly called in Japan Kuzo-Mushi (that is, dung- 

 worm), grows among orduro in summer; at first it resemblos a pupa 

 (of a silkworm?), and is white in colouring; when grown old it is 

 gray and articulated, having a long tail (comp, the tigure); it moves 



without regularity; 1) its form resembles the silique of a radish; 



1) The Suggestion that „a pupa" means here that of a silkworm, 

 belongs to Mr. K. M. „It moves without regulaiity", according to him, 

 is expressed by a sign which at the same time means foolishly, 

 without apparent aim. 



The description in which the young larva, in its purity and white- 

 ness, is quaintly compared to the pupa of a silkworm, and contrasted 

 with its dirty condition during its later developraent. puts me forcibly 

 in mind the expressions ofReaumur, in describing the same larva in 

 the same conditions, just a quarter of a Century after Terashima: „son 

 Corps si propre, si blanc et si transparent lorsqu'il etait dans l'eau 

 devient bientöt opaque, sale et grisätre" (Röaum. M^m. IV, p. 454, 1738)^ 



XL. Heft I. 10 



