JVo. VL 





AN ACCOUNT 



■Of the American Cantharis, or Meloe Amcridt j 



COMMUNICATED BY DOCT. NATHANIEL DWIGHT, 

 NOW OF NEW-LONDON. 



IN the Medical Repository, No. II. vol. II. page 174,, 

 is the- following account. " Two or three years 

 ago, William Smith, an intelligent person in my neigh- 

 bourhood, informed me that one day as he was at work, 

 he accidently mashed an insect on his shoulder, which, 

 in a short time, produced a complete vesication ; and it 

 appearing to be the insect here described, I was deter- 

 mined to gather some of them, and give them a trial in 

 my practice ; which, however I neglected to do until 

 last summer. 



" This insect has a very near resemblance, in outward 

 form, to the Meloe (vesicatorius) alatus, viridissimus 

 nitens, antennis nigris, (Linn.) or Spanish flies, as they 

 are commonly called; but is rather smaller than even 

 those brought from Spain, and of a very different color.; 

 the head is of a very light red, with black antennae ; the 

 elytra, or wing cases, are black, margined with pale yel- 

 low, and a stripe of the same color extends along the 

 middle of each of them,; the tarsi have five articujations 5 



