42 
Psyche 
[ March 
blood, and they do not transmit disease, although I have 
several specimens of Panorpa lugubris from Nichols, South 
Carolina, which were held responsible by the inhabitants 
of the town during the fall of 1928 for an epidemic of fits 
among the dogs. 
Because of their seclusive habits the scorpion-flies appar- 
ently escaped the attention of the ancient and early medi- 
eval naturalists more persistently than most other types 
of insects. According to Figuier, 1 Aristotle thought that 
the males of the Panorpidse were flying scorpions because 
they possessed a swollen bulb at the end of the abdomen 
resembling the poison sac of the true scorpions. But I 
consider that this statement is incorrect, for Aristotle was 
one of the few ancient naturalists who believed that scor- 
pions could not fly. 2 
Pliny the Elder, however, quoting Appoloderus of Athens 
(144 B. C.) states in his “Natural History” that some 
scorpions have wings, and it is possible that these flying 
scorpions were in reality males of Panorpidse. Definite 
references to the scorpion-flies seem to be absent from all 
the so-called encyclopedias and natural histories of the 
Middle Ages until 1605, when Ulissi Aldrovandi published 
the insect volume of his “De Animalibus.” In this work 
there are the first recognizable descriptions of Mecoptera, 
which he placed with the flies, and there are several good 
figures of Panorpas, showing the elongate beak and other 
characteristic features (fig. 1A). In 1634 there appeared 
the “Insectorum sive Minimorum Animalium Theatrum,” 
which is usually attributed to Thomas Moufet. This inter- 
esting compilation was originally begun by Edward Wotton, 
a prominent English physician of about 1550, and was con- 
tinued by Conrad Genner, Thomas Penny, and Moufet. On 
page 62 there are three figures of Panorpas, depicting clearly 
the genital forceps of the males (fig. IB) . The illustrations 
used in both these works were later republished by Johannes 
Johnston in his “Historia Animalium,” which appeared in 
1653. All these figures are really remarkably accurate, and 
1 Les Insectes, 1st ed., 1867, p. 512. 
2 De Partibus Animalium, Bk. 4, Ch. 3, p. 123. 
