10(5 MELOE. 



differs in being of a reddish purple colour, with a 

 cast of deep gilded green. 



Meloe vesicatorius, Blister-Fly, or Spanish-Fly, 

 is an insect of great beauty, being entirely of the 

 richest gilded grass-green, with black antennas. 

 Its shape is lengthened, and the abdomen, which 

 is pointed, extends somewhat beyond the wing- 

 sheaths: its usual length is about an inch. This 

 celebrated insect, the Cantharis of the Materia 

 Medica, forms, as is well known, the safest and 

 most efficacious epispastic or blister-plaister, rais- 

 ing, after the space of a few hours, the cuticle, and 

 causing a plentiful serous discharge from the skin. 

 It is supposed however that the Cantharis of Dios- 

 corides, or that used by the ancients for the same 

 purpose, was a different species, viz. the Meloe 

 Cichorel* of Linnaeus, an insect nearly equal in 

 size to the M. Proscarabagus, and of a black 

 colour, with three transverse yellow bands on the 

 wing-shells. The Meloe vesicatorius is principally 

 found in the warmer parts of Europe, as Spain, 

 the South of France, &c. It is also observed, 

 though far less plentifully, in some parts of our 

 own country, 



* See a dissertation on this subject in the sixth volume of the 

 Arnoenitates Academicae. The Chinese still use it instead of our 

 Cantharides. 



