INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 155 



have looked upon it as a species of the genus to which 

 he has given its name ; but these, being timber insects, 

 are not very likely to be swallowed by cattle with their 

 food. Geoffroy thinks it to be a Carabus or Cicindela, 

 but with as little reason, since the species of these genera 

 do not feed amongst the herbage ; and though they are 

 sometimes found running there, yet their motions are so 

 rapid, that it is not very likely that cattle would often 

 swallow them while feeding. 



M. Latreille, in an ingenious essay on this insect 3 , 

 suspects it to belong to the genus Meloe, F. ; and as this 

 feeds upon herbs, (M. Proscarabteus, L. and M. viola- 

 ceus, E. B. upon the Ranunculi, so widely disseminated 

 in our pastures,) his opinion seems to rest upon more solid 

 grounds than that of his predecessors ; but yet I think the 

 insect in question rather belongs to Mylabris, F. and for 

 the following reason. 



In order rightly to ascertain what insect this really 

 was, we must endeavour to trace it in the country in 

 which it received its name and character. This coun- 

 try was certainly Greece ; and there such an animal, re- 

 taining nearly its old name, and accused of being the 

 cause of the same injury to cattle, still exists. For Belon 

 informs us that on Mount Athos there is found a winged 

 insect like the blister-beetle, but yellow, larger, and of a 

 very offensive smell, which feeds upon various plants, 

 and is called Voupristi by the Caloyers or Monks, who 

 assert that when horses or other cattle even feed upon 

 the herbs which the animals have touched, they die from 

 inflammation, and that it is an immediate poison to 

 oxen b . This therefore most probably was the Bupres- 



* Annates du Museum.— X c Ann. N" xi. p. 129. 

 b Observations de plusicurs SingularUcs, $c. I. i. c. 15, p. 73. of 

 the Edition in Sir Joseph Banks's Library. 



