1.56 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 



food. Geoffrey thinks it to be a Carabus or Cicindela, 

 but with as little reason, since the species of these genera 

 do not feed amongst the herbage ; and though they are 

 sometimes found running there, yet their motions are so 

 rapid, that it is not very likely that cattle would often 

 swallow them while feeding. 



M. Latreille, in an ingenious essay on this insect*, 

 suspects it to belong to the genus Meloe, and as this 

 feeds upon herbs, (M. Proscarabaus and M. violaceus, 

 upon the Ranunculi, so widely disseminated in our pas- 

 tures,) his opinion seems to rest upon more solid grounds 

 than that of his predecessors; but yet I think the insect 

 in question rather belongs to Mylabris, and for the fol- 

 lowing reason. 



In order rightly to ascertain what insect this really 

 was, we must endeavour to trace it in the country in 

 which it received its name and character. This country 

 was certainly Greece; and there such an animal, re- 

 taining nearly its old name, and accused of being the 

 cause of the same injury to cattle, still exists. For Belon 

 informs us that on Mount Athos there is found a winged 

 insect like the blister-beetle, but yellow, larger, and of a 

 very offensive smell, which feeds upon various plants, 

 and is called Voupristi by the Caloyers or Monks, who 

 assert that when horses or other cattle even feed upon 

 the herbs which the animals have touched, they die from 

 inflammation, and that it is an immediate poison to 

 oxen b . This therefore most probably was the Buprestis 

 of the Greek writers; and as Pliny usually compiled 

 from them, it may be regarded as his also, which he 



a Annales du Museum. X e Ann. N xi. p. 129. 

 b Observations de plusieurs Singularites, fyc. 1. i. c. 45. p. 73 of the 

 Edition in Sir Joseph Banks's Library. 



