— 187 — 



and Latin literature. This superstition prevailed also in Nor- 

 thern Africa and in some j)arts of Asia ; it continued tlirough 

 the middle ages, and fomid expression even in the sixteenth 

 and seventeenth centuries. The friend of Luther, the learned 

 and pious Melanchthon, considered it as a divine provision ; 

 an Italian poet of the sixteenth century put it into verse; (1) 

 the great naturalist Aklrovandi (1602) accepted it without 

 contradiction ; the English naturalist Moufet (Theatrum In- 

 sectorum 1634) (2) spoke of it as a common occurrence (expe- 

 rientia rustica et vulgaris, 1. e, p. 12); and, fìnally, the learned 

 Bochart (1663) (3) admitted it as an undoubted truth. 



The originai cause of this delusion lies in the fact that a 

 very common fly, scientifically called Eristalis tenax (popularly 

 the drone-fly), lays its eggs upon carcasses of animals, that 

 its larvae develop witliin the putrescent mass, and fìnally 

 change into a swarm of fiies which, in their sliape, hairy clo- 

 thing and colour, 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 tAvo wings, and no sting. 



(1) Giovanni Rucellai (1475-1525), in Florence and Rome, dieci as Governoi* of 

 S. Angelo. His i^oem : Le Api, Amsterd. latin edit. 1681, p. 68, contains an account 

 of the Bìtgoitià. 



(2) Moufet was a contemporary of Queeu Elisabeth, and died witliout publisliing 

 his work. u It fell into tlie hands of Sir Theod. Mayerne, Baron d'Aubone, one of 

 the court physicians in the time of Charles I, who at length published it, prefixing 

 a dedication to Sir W.'" Paddy M. D., in 1634. " (This passage, as well as tlie pre- 

 vious history of the « Tlieatrum Insectorum " will be found in Kirby and Spence, 

 Introd. IV, p. 429430). I speli 3Ioufet (K and S. have Jlouffet) as I find it on the title-page 

 of xny coi^y of the u Theatrum ", 1634. By a strange, and perhaps signiflcant coinci- 

 dence, such works as Moufet's, Swammerdam's, and Lyonet's u Recherches ", were 

 neglected by their contemporaries, and published long after the death of their 

 authors. 



(3) Samuel Bochart, Hierozoìcon , sive opus bipartitum de animalibus sacrae scrip- 

 tìirae, London, 1663. 



This stupendou.s monument of erudition was my principal source for ali the refe- 

 rences on the Bugonìa from Greek and Roman authors (1. e. voi. II, p. 502-505). 

 I have also used Aldrovandi, De animalibtis insectts, Bologna, 1602, page 58-60. 



