468 NATURAL HISTORY OF AFRICA. 
thousand times the bulk of the rest of the body. 
It is then an oblong matrix full of ova. When 
these are perfectly formed, they begin to be pro- 
truded, and they come forth so quickly, that about 
sixty in a minute, or upwards of eighty thousand 
in twenty-four hours, are deposited. 
Bruce, in his travels, describes a fly under the 
name Tsaltsalya, which'appears to belong to the ta- 
banus tribe. As soon as this pest appears, and 
their buzzing noise is heard, all the cattle forsake 
their food, and run wildly about the plain till they 
die, worn out with fatigue, terror, and hunger. 
Camels, and even elephants and rhinoceroses, 
though the two last coat themselves with a crust of 
mud, are attacked by this formidable insect. The 
pain its bite produces is so severe, that even the 
lion flies its approach. 
Several species of bee, particularly that named 
apis fasciata, are extensively cultivated in many parts 
of Africa, and in some districts affords a particular- 
ly delicious honey ; and the wax obtained from the 
hive forms an article of consequence in the trade 
of Africa. 
The tarantula spider abounds in Barbary, where 
its bite is known to produce violent inflammation, 
and other disagreeable symptoms ; the bite of the 
solpuga araneoides, a native of the Cape of Good 
Hope, is often fatal to man and beast ; the com- 
mon scorpion, so well known for the painful, and 
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