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VIII. On the Insect called Oistros by the Ancient Greeks^ and 

 Asilus by the Romans. By William Sharp MacLeay, 

 Esq., M.A., F.L.S.* 



T^HE determination of the animals and plants mentioned by 

 ■*- the ancient writers must always be a pleasing subject of 

 research, tending, as it does, not merely to our better com- 

 prehension of the meaning of these authors, but also to our 

 better acquaintance with the mysteries of nature. Every clas- 

 sical reader, as well as every entomologist, is familiar with 

 the word Oestrus as the name of one of the most celebrated 

 insects of antiquity. The insect itself, however, 



"cui pomen Asilo 

 Romanuin est, CEstron Graii vertere vocantes." 



ViRG. Georg. iii. 147. 



has not for this been the more accurately determined ; and 

 Olivier is the first modern naturalist who appears to have sus- 

 pected that the CEstnis of the ancients and the Qistrus of the 

 moderns are totally different insects. With an exception in 

 favour of Messrs. Latreille, Kirby and Spence, this curious 

 remark seems not to have excited much attention ; although 

 it may easily be proved that Olivier has come much nearer the 

 truth than those who liold the contrary opinion. 



In investigations of the following nature, it is not only ad- 

 vantageous but necessary to begin from some fixed and indis- 

 putable position. Now such I take to be the identity of the 

 insects termed in French taon ; in Spanish tavano ,- in Italian 

 tabano ; and in Latin tabanus. The tabani are unfortunately 

 insects too common for their name to have ever been forgot- 

 ten ; and knowing what the country-people in France call 

 taons,we know the insects which Pliny anciently termed tabani. 

 By comparing Pliny with Aristotle, we find that he invariably 

 translates the word jauajvj/ {ca:cutie)is) by the Latin word taba- 

 nus ; and entomologists know well that this Greek name is 

 extremely appropriate to the modern tabani or taons, which 

 are so remarkable for their eyes, that a common species of 

 Chrysops has at the present day the trivial epithet ofcceattiens. 

 Now it appears from Aristotle, that the oifjTpojf and ju-uajvl; 

 were insects extremely near each other in affinity ; they are 

 almost always mentioned by him together^ and agree in every 

 respect but that wherein Aristotle was least likely to be accu- 



• From the Transactions of the Linnean Society, vol. xiv. p. 353. 



f Otarqos is a name also applied by Aristotle to some small insectivorous 

 bird, and to some species olthe Ci/mntlioniltr, \vi;ich is parasitical about the 

 fins of the Tunny. Pliny also appears to apply the word (Eslrus to the 

 drone (lib. ii. c. 16.). 



F 2 rate, 



