276 Scientific Notices. 



Jfote on CEstrus, by W. S. MacLeay, Esq. 



Having just seen my paper in the Zoological Journal on the CEstrus 

 of Mr. B. Clark, it has struck me that when this gentleman says, that 

 " the (Estrus 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 CEstrus, 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 CEstrus has a 

 real sting like the females of Hymenoptera ; but merely that if Aristotle 

 had seen the exserted ovipositor of an CEstrus, 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 

 CEstrus, 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 

 larvee, 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. 



