202 MELOE PROSCARAB/EUS. 



KdoeCiehorei; 8g$t. Nat.Gmcl. \ p. 2018. Mylabris Cicliorei; Fabr.Bni.Syst. 



i. p. 88; Oliv. Ent. iii. no. 47, t. 1, f. 1, et t. 2, f. 13. 



This insect is very common in the East Indies, and is found on 

 the flowers of the Cichoreum or succory. It is somewhat larger 

 than our common Blister-fly ; but it varies very much in size and 

 in the colour of the elytra, which are elongate, smooth, yellow, and 

 marked with three undulating transverse black bands. It has long 

 been employed in China as an epispastic, and seems to have been 

 considered the most powerful vesicatory among the ancients. 

 " The most efficacious sort of Cantharides," says Dioscorides, " are 

 of many colours, having yellow transverse bands ; the body oblong, 

 large, and fat; those only of one colour are without strength."* 

 Though the generic term Cantharis seems to have applied indis- 

 criminately to several kinds of insects, the ancients were certainly 

 well acquainted with our common sort, and made use of it, as well 

 as Cetonia aurata, and some other species mentioned by Pliny. f 

 Another species of Mylabris has been described by Major-Gen. 

 Hardwicke in the Asiatic Researches,^ plentiful in all parts of 

 Bengal, Bahar, and Oude, which is fully as efficacious as the com- 

 mon Spanish fly. 



MELOE PROSCARAB^US, 



Common Oil-Beetle. 



Pl. XXVII. Jig. 7. 



Gen. Char. Antenna moniliform, tapering towards 

 their points ; palpi four, unequal, subclavatc ; elytra 

 rounded at the apex, covering only a part of the 

 abdomen, short, oval, diverging at the suture ; wings 



* Mat. Med. lib. ii.cap.65. 



f Hist. Nat. lib. xix. c. 4. 



1 Vol ▼. i>.213. 



