— 192 — 



1." It is more like a lioney-bee than aiiy otlier fly; tlie 

 other iiies, Avliicli liave been iiamecl in connection witli tlie 

 Btigonìttj Lave a different aspect; tlie Oestridae are more like 

 hnmble-bees; HelopJiilus is more like a wasp. 



2.° It oviposits on carcasses in a state of far aclvanced 

 decomposition in wliicli its larvae tlirive, and tliese habits cor- 

 respond to the tradition of the oxen-born bee. The larvae of 

 Oestrus (genus Hypoderma) live in the skin of living animals; 

 the wasjD-like Helopliilus^ although a dose relative of Eristalìs 

 in the zoological system, and deyeloping, like that fly, from a 

 rat-tailed larva, is, in comparison to E. tenax, of rather rare 

 occurrence, and would not have been noticed so easily and so 

 generally. 



3." The very common occurrence of Eristalìs tenax, and 

 (as I will show in the paragraph abont its geographical distri- 

 bution) the truly fabulous rapidity of its propagation under 

 favorable circumstances, must have struck, from the earliest 

 times, the eyes and the imagination of the ignorant crowd, 

 and this obtrusiveness, combined with the swarming of the 

 fly round carcasses, and its bee-like aspect, led quite naturally 

 towards the belief in the Bug onta. 



This thesis, that Eristalìs tenax alone is the cause of the 

 Bttgonìa-CYSize, being given, what remains for me to do is to 

 show how, at the end of those twenty centuries of inertia, 

 the question about the Bugonìa came up again, and after 

 some uncertainty and groping, found its solution in the reco- 

 gnition of that truth. 



A group of men, almost contemporaries, brought about 

 that solution in the seventeenth century, by dint of observing 

 insects in life, and not by merely compiling authorities. These 

 men were: Goedart (1620-1668), Blankaart (his work appeared 

 in 1688), Swammerdam (1637-1680), ali three in HoUand; 

 Eedi (1626-1697) and Vallisnieri (1661-1730) in Italy, and 

 finally Eéaumur (1683-1767) in France. 



GoEDAEt {Metamorphosis insectorum etc. 1662; edition in 



