78 FAMILIES OF PETALOCERA WHICH FEED ON 



AavSjj of the ancients, a name which Fabricius erroneously 

 apphed to other insects which are hardly ever seen on 

 flowers. Eustathius describes the MvjXav9)j or Mr)XoA«vfl)) 

 or MyiKoKovSrj (for it had all these names) as an animal 

 larger than a wasp, and so called either from its being 

 produced Ix tJjj ju.>]Xecov av^aswg, or from its flying about 

 fruit-trees when they begin to flower. Were the attempt 

 to determine an insect from so vague a description justi- 

 fiable, I should say that in all probability the MrjXoXovSrj of 

 the ancients was the Trichius fasciatus so common over 

 all the continent. This is a vernal beetle constantly on 

 flowers, which flies exactly Uke an hymenopterous insect*/ 

 and might easily be compared with a wasp in point of 

 colour and marking, as well as in size, by a more expe- 

 rienced observer than we can suppose Eustathius to have 

 been. Indeed, I hardly know a coleopterous insect that 

 would more readily be compared with a wasp than the 

 Trichius fasciatus. Nevertheless M ouffet, who assembles, 

 together all the various opinions of his day with the clas- 

 sical authorities on this subject, thinks that the ancient 

 Melolontha was a green insect with a metallic lustre, and 

 thus refers the name to Buprestis sternicornis and B. Chry- 

 sis, which he supposes to be male and female of the same 

 species. But these insects being natives of India, it is very 

 unlikely that the Greeks should have had a name for them, 

 and above all that they should have derived this name 

 from their manners. Besides, the true Melolontha was not 



" *' Pendant le jour ils sontd'une grande agilite, et ils s'envolent alors 

 arec facilite; c'est & dire, qu'ils sont toujours prets a voler; il leur faut tres 

 peu du temps pour ouvrir les etuis, au lieu que d'autres Scarabees ba- 

 lancent long temps avant que de prendre essor,'* Degeer, Memoires del 

 Ins. vol. iv. p. 300. 



