154- INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 



Small as this insect is, we must acknowledge the ele- 

 phant, rhinoceros, lion and tiger vastly his inferior. The 

 appearance, nay the very sound of it occasions more 

 trepidation, movements and disorder both in the human 

 and brute creation, than whole herds of the most fe- 

 rocious wild beasts in tenfold greater numbers than they 

 ever are would produce. As soon as this plague appears, 

 and their buzzing is heard, all the cattle forsake their 

 food, and run wildly about the plain till they die worn 

 out with fatigue, fright, and hunger. No remedy re- 

 mains for the residents on such spots but to leave the 

 black earth and hasten down to the sands of Atbara, and 

 there they remain while the rains last. Camels, and 

 even elephants and rhinoceroses, though the two last 

 coat themselves with an armour of mud, are attacked by 

 this winged assassin and afflicted with numerous tumours. 



nial. 1. viii. c. 11.) but also as furnished with a strong proboscis (1. iv. 

 c. 70- He observes likewise that they are produced from an animal 

 inhabiting the waters, in the vicinity of which they most abound 

 (1. viii. c. 7)- And -flSlian (Hist. 1. vi. c. 38.) gives nearly the same 

 account. Comparing the (Estrus with the Myops (synonymous per- 

 haps with Tabanus, Latr., except that Aristotle affirms that its larvae 

 live in wood, 1. v. c. 19,) he says, the (Estrus for a fly is one of the 

 largest ; it has a stiff and large sting, (meaning a proboscis,) and 

 emits a certain humming and harsh sound but the Myops is like 

 the Cynomyia it hums more loudly than the (Estrus, though it has 

 a smaller sting. 



These characters and circumstances do not at all agree with the 

 modern (Estrus, which, so far from being a blood-sucker furnished 

 with a strong proboscis, has scarcely any mouth. It shuns also the 

 vicinity of water, to which our cattle generally fly as a refuge from 

 it. It seems more probable that the (Estrus of Greece was related 

 to Bruce's Zimb, represented in his figure with a long proboscis, 

 which makes its appearance in the neighbourhood of rivers, and be- 

 longs to the TabnnidcB. For further information the reader should 

 consult Mr. W. S. MacLeay's learned paper on the insect called 

 Oistros and Asilus by the ancients. Linn. Trans, xiv, 353 . 



