78 FAMILIES OF PETALOCERA WHICH FEED ON 



Aav0>j of the ancients, a name which Fabricius erroneously 

 applied to other insects which are hardly ever seen on 

 flowers. Eustathius describes the Mr}\ccvfy or AfyAoAai/fy 

 or iWrjAoAov0>] (for it had all these names) as an animal 

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

 produced Ik tyjs pjAewv avflvjcrewj, 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 M>jAoAov0>) of 

 the ancients was the Trichius fasciatus so common over 

 all the continent. This is a vernal beetle constantly on 

 flowers, which flies exactly like an hymenopterous insect 3 , 

 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 



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

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

 peudu temps pour ouvrir ]es etuis, au lieu que d'autres Scarabees ba- 

 lanced long temps avant que de prendre essor.'* Degeer, Memoirea des 

 Ins. vol. iv. p. 300. 



