14G C. R. Osten Sacken: 



developing wings it turns into a big fly, resembling the bot-fl.v, and 

 then it is commonly called „Bun-bun". Tberc is a magic poem for 

 keeping away tbis fly. When tbe bill with tbis poeni is posted about 

 the entrance of outhonses, on the same day the flies disappear; ob- 

 serve that the bill should be posted upside down. The 

 poem says: „An auspicious day this 8*:^ of the fonrth month shall 

 bc in the present year: on this day the dung-worms with long tails 

 will be condemned." The existence of such folk-lore as early as 

 1713, shows that the larva was known to occur in Japan a long time 

 before the Cyclopedia's compilation. And it also proves that, in and 

 about 1713 at the latest, the Japanese knew quite well that the long- 

 tailed dungworm was the larva of the „Bunbun". It is rather stränge 

 to find that while Terashima gives a comparatively füll account of 

 JEi.tenax in bis Cyclopedia, Kaibara, whose „Materia Medica" was 

 published during Terashima s life-time and only five years before the 

 publication of his Cyclopedia, does not mention E. tennx in connection 

 with his criticism of Chinese ideas about the production of honey. 

 That he is acquaintcd with E. tenax appears in his book XIV, p. 12, 

 in the article „Abu" (Bot-Hy), where he says: „a variety of bot-fly 

 abundant about grass and trees is shaped like a fly, but bigger, and 

 sucks flowers, but does no harni to inen, cattle and horses; sonietiraes 

 it slings nien (?), but without giving pain." This certainly niust mean 

 E. tencuv, as even to-day, in sonic provinccs, pcoplc do not call it 

 „Bun bun", but „Hana-Abu", which lucans „flower bot-fly". It is 

 evident therefore that although Kaibara refuted the Chinese opinion 

 about the preparation of honey, he did not know that the origin of 

 this belief lay in the confusion of his „flower bot-fly" with a lioney- 

 bee! Terashima, on the contraiy, was fully aware of the dift'erence 

 between the bot-fly and EristaUs tenax." 



„In ccrtain rcspects, in the manner of flying and in the sound 

 of the buzzing, the droue-fly „bun-bun" may resemble a bot-fly 

 (Gastrophilns) more than a bec, but not in the general appearance. 

 Neverthcless, in Japan, even a rustic school-boy will distinguish these 

 two insects very well." 



So far Mr. K. Minakata! The confusion between 1 °, the bee and 

 2£, the drone-fly on the one side. and 3^ the bot-fly on the other, 

 in the eastern world, naturally brings to mind the confusion which 

 I hope to have unravelled between 1^ the honey-bee. 2Ji the oxen- 

 born bee (Eristalis). and 3^ the horse-born hörnet (bot-fly, Gastro- 

 phihisj, among the Greeks and Romans (Comp. On the Oxen-born 

 bees etc. Suppl. V, p. 53). 



Two more Communications from Mr. K. M. about entomological 



