276 Scientific Notices. 
Note on CEstrus, by W. S. MacLeay, Esq. 
Having just seen my paper in the Zoological Journal on the Cstrus 
of Mr. B. Clark, it has struck me that when this gentleman says, that 
« the Qstrus bovis has no aculeus or weapon of infliction in the abdo- 
«« men,” he could only have stated so obvious and well known a fact 
upon a misunderstanding of the following words in the note p. 358 of my 
paper in the Linnean Transactions. ‘* Aristotle could never have seen 
“‘ a female of the modern (Estrus, as appears from his stating that no 
Dipterous insect has its sting placed behind.’’ The veriest Tyro in En- 
tomology must know that what is meant here, is not that Cistrus has a 
real sting like the females of Hymenoptera; but merely that if Aristotle 
had seen the exserted ovipositor of an Cistrus, he like Mouffet must 
from the state of his entomological knowledge have taken it for a sting. 
In awarding the accurate meed of praise to Fischer’s publication on 
Cstrus, I ought to have stated that he like Mr. Clark describes the Pupa 
of CEstrus bovis for the larva. What is supposed to be the full grown 
larva of this insect is often the Pupa. To understand the real form of the 
larve, the young tumours of the hide ought to be examined, and not 
those full grown ones from which the insect is on the point of emerging 
to undergo the remainder of its pupa state on the ground. 
Havana, 
April 7th, 1830. 
