80 
Psyche 
[June-Sept. 
Historical Note. — There is every reason to believe that 
Hippobosca longipennis, the dog-fly of the Near and Far 
East, was well known by the ancient Greeks and Romans, 
as it is particularly abundant in the countries bordering the 
eastern Mediterranean. Many are the references to “kuna- 
muya” (in Greek) or Cynomya in the classic literature and 
early scientific writings. Thus, in the Iliad, Ares, the god 
of war, upbraids Athene: “You dog-fly, why do you sow 
strife among the Gods? . . (Bk. 21, 394). Elsewhere 
(Bk. 21, 421) Athene exclaims: “Now watch that dog-fly 
[meaning Aphrodite] leading Ares through the free-for- 
all. . . .’ n I am also inclined to think that the Greek word 
“ kunoraistai ” or dog-destroyers, used in the Odyssea 
(XVII, 300) and later by Aristoteles, covered the ecto- 
parasites of dogs in general, hippoboscid flies as well as 
ticks. Oudemans (1926, Tijdschr. v. Entom., LXIX, Suppl., 
pp. 49-59) claims that both “kunoraistai” and “ kunamuya ” 
were used by the Greeks for dog ticks only ( Ixodes reduvius 
Linnaeus). He is evidently unaware of the abundance of 
Hippobosca longipennis on dogs in the Orient. It seems 
most improbable that the Greeks would have called a tick a 
fly, since they had a special word for ticks (“ krotones ”) and 
must have been well acquainted with both types of para- 
sites. Moreover, the hippoboscid attracts more readily the 
attention and is more loathsome to the layman than the 
tick, owing to its habit of scurrying about in the fur and 
of flying from one dog to another or even onto people. Hence 
the use of the word “dog-fly” as a reviling or scurrilous 
epithet. 2 
1 The exact dating of the collection of epic poems now called the Iliad 
and credited to Homer is a matter of speculation. Probably they had 
more or less crystallized into their present form by the eighth century 
B. C. 
2 Oudemans also claims that the “muscse” or flies mentioned by 
Varro, Columella, Plinius and others as causing sores in dogs, were 
ticks. But in warm countries certain biting flies, such as Stomoxys 
and Phlebotomies, may cause true sores on the ears of dogs. Oudemans 
is apparently also mistaken in criticizing Albertus Magnus’ use of the 
expression “muscse bestiarum. quae dicuntur cynondse sive muscse 
caninse ” (De Animalibus Libri XXVI, 1260). Albertus, in my opinion, 
alluded correctly to the winged hippoboscids which in southern Europe 
infest horses and cattle, as well as dogs ; the two species being so much 
a 1 ike that laymen would naturally call them by the same name. In 
his second volume, Oudemans (1929, pp. 150-151) is quite elated over 
