— 204 — 



(Met. XV, 368) is silent aboiit tlie wasps, and meiitions only 

 the hornets: 



Pressus liumo bellator cralìronis origo est. 



« Thomas Moufet says that the harder iiesh of horses 

 prodnces hornets, the softer, wasps. But the Greek commen- 

 tators of Nicander attribute this faculty not to the ilesh, bnt 

 to the skin; the condition however is that the horse shoiild 

 have been bitten by a wolf! Georgius Pachymerus affirms 

 that the wasps originate neither from the ilesh, nor the skin, 

 but from the brain. Landò says that hornets originate from 

 the brain of asses. But Servius Grammaticus, mixing up 

 everything (sconvolgendo ogni cosa) says that from horses 

 come the drones, from mules the hornets, and from asses the 

 wasps. Olympiodorus, Pliny, Cardanus, Porta assert that the 

 ass produces drones and beetles, but not wasps, others say 

 scor]3Ìons etc. etc. » 



Among ali these vagaries there are grains of truth, and 

 facts based on actual observation. The assertion of the com- 

 mentators of Nicander, for instance, that bees or wasps are 

 produced from the skin of animals, evidently refers to bot-flies 

 (Oestridae). The larvae of the genus Hypoderma occur in the 

 skin of living oxen, horses, asses etc; the flies resemble hum- 

 ble-bees much more than honey-bees. I have already spoken 

 of these resemblances (comp. above, p. Ili) and also of the re- 

 semblance of the ily Helojjhilus to a wasp. Por Helophilus 

 compare Réaumur, Mèm. IV, Tab. 31, f. 10, 11; the rat-tailed 

 larva is figured on Tab. 30. 



The story of wasps or hornets, originating in carcasses 

 of dead horses (Aelian, De ìiat. aniin. I, 28; also Ovid. 1. e.) 

 gave occasion to the celebrated German scholar and critic 

 Lessing, to compose, under the guise of a fable, a very mali- 

 gnant and injust epigram against the Italian nation (Lessing, 

 Fabeln, I, 16: Die Wespen). (1) 



(1) My attentioii to tliis epigram I owe to Mr. E. Pilet, the accomplished mem- 

 ber of the French Consulate in Mannheim. 



