124 



INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 



confluence of the Nile and Astaboras, are once a year obliged 

 to change their abode and seek protection in the sands of 

 Beja ; nor is there any alternative or means of avoiding this, 

 though a hostile band were in the way capable of spoiling 

 them of half their substance J This fly is truly a Beelzebub^ ; 

 and perhaps it was this, or some species related to it, that was 

 the prototype of the Philistine idol worshipped under that 

 name and in the form of a fly. 



I must not conclude this subject of insects hurtful to our 

 cattle without noticing a beetle much talked of by the ancients 

 for its mischievous properties in this respect. You will soon 

 and rightly conjecture that I am speaking of the Buprestis^, 

 so called from the injury which it has been supposed to oc- 

 casion to oxen or kine. 



Modern writers have been much divided in their opinion 

 to what genus this celebrated insect belongs. All indeed 

 have regarded it as of the Coleoptera order ; but here their 

 agreement ceases. Linne should seem to 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"^, suspects 

 it to belong to the genus Melde^ and as this feeds upon herbs, 

 (M. Proscarahceus and M, violaceus, 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, 

 and for the following reason. 



In order rightly to ascertain what insect this really was, we 



1 Bruce's Travels, Svo. ii. 315. 



2 Heb. nnr hvx literally " Lord- Fly." See 2 Kings, i. 2.; and Bochart, 

 Hip.rozoic. ps. ii. 1. 4. c. 9. p. 490. 



3 Burn- Cow or Ox, from fiovs bos, and TrprjOco inflammo. M. Latreille trans - 

 lates it Creve-bceuf, but improperly. 



■i Annales du Museum. — Xe Ann. xi. p. 129. 



