M E L 
69 
19. Meloe hermanniae: villous, black; fhells with a 
yellow fpot at the bale and two indented yellow bands. 
It inhabits Guinea; refembles M. cichorei, but is not 
half fo large. 
20. Meloe punftum: villous, black; (hells with two 
bands, the firil yellow with a black dot, the hinder one 
reddifli. Inhabits Tranquebar. 
ai. Meloe decem-pun&ata: black; (hells tellaceous, 
with five black dots. It is found in Italy. 
22. Meloe quadri-pun6lata: black; (hells teftaceous, 
with two black dots. Inhabits Rufiia, and refembles the 
preceding. 
23. Meloe tri-maculata: black; (hells yellow, with a 
brown band and common dot. It inhabits the Ea(l. 
24. Meloe argentata: covered with filvery down; the 
(hells have yellowilh fpots, mod: of them connected at the 
margin. The antennae and legs are ferruginous. Inha¬ 
bits Senegal. 
25. Meloe Americana: black; thorax femi-circular ; the 
(hells have three yellow bands; the firil crefcent-fhaped, 
the others confluent. -See fig. 19. The antennae differ a 
little from thofe of the other fpecies : they are fliort, 
with nine joints, growing larger from the origin a to the 
tip b. The head is large, the neck long and narrow; the 
thorax is hairy. It inhabits America. 
26. Meloe Indica: black; lhells yellowilh, fulvous be¬ 
hind, with a black dot and three-lobed fpot at the bafe, 
an indented band in the middle and lemi-lunar margin at 
the tip. It is found in India. 
27. Meloe elongata: glofly-black; (hells yellow varied 
yvith blue. 
28. Meloe aurea : green-gold; fliells fulvous. 
29. Meloe arcuata: black, hairy; lhells with a curved 
yellow fpot on the fore-part, and two waved yellow bands. 
Antennae black, clavate at the tip. 
30. Meloe bi-fafciata: black, hairy; fliells with a yel¬ 
low round fpot on the fore-part and at the outer angle, 
and two bands. See fig. 20. Antennas yellow; bafe of 
the fliells piceous. The yellow fpot at the angle of the 
fliells is lometimes wanting. This is the larged of the 
genus; it inhabits India. 
31. Meloe tri-fafciata: deel-blue, with a greenifli filky 
glofs; (hells grey, with two greenilh-black bands, one of 
them common. It inhabits near the Cafpian Sea. 
32. Meloe arata: deep glofly-black; (hells with a yel¬ 
low waved band towards the tip. The antennas are cla¬ 
vate at the end; the legs fecrete a kind of oil. Found 
near the Cafpian Sea. 
33. Meloe necydalea: black; (hells red, a little (horter 
than the abdomen, diftinft at the tip. It is found in 
Rulfia. 
34. Meloe Pennfylvanica: entirely black and opaque. 
Inhabits Pennfylvania in America. 
35. Meloe chloroptera: black, fubvillous; lhells yel¬ 
low; the fird joint of the antennae three times as large as 
the red. Inhabits France. 
36. Meloe melanura: (hells yellow, with four black 
fpots, the tip black; antennae clavate. Inhabits Calabria. 
37. Meloe ochroptera: black; fliells fafiron, black at 
the bafe, on each fide before and behind the middle is a 
faffron dot, with a black interrupted band and tip. 
38. Meloe bicolor: black; fliells yellow, with a black 
(lot on each fide at the bafe; the tip and band in the 
middle, which is broader at the edges, are black. 
Q. Jaw linear and entire. Corcoma of Fabricius. 
39. Meloe Schsefteri: green; antennae and legs entire; 
(hanks and tarfi of the male dilated, appendaged. Inha¬ 
bits Europe. 
40. Meloe Vahlii: green; antennae and legs black; ab¬ 
domen reddifli at the bafe. Inhabits Barbary. 
41. Meloe Schraeberi: green; antennae, legs, and three 
fegments of the abdomen, yellow. 
42. Meloe Gouani: black 5 fliells with a fanguineous 
band and tip. 
The bli(ler-infe£l, or Spanifli-fly, was till very lately 
Vo u. XV. No. 1024. 
M E L 
fuppofed to be a Meloe, and indeed is generally fo ar¬ 
ranged in our pharmacopoeias; but more minute and ac¬ 
curate obfervations have fliown that it is the Lytta veii- 
catorius, which fee, vol. xiii. p. 850. and the correfpondent 
Engraving. 
We (hall conclude with a fliort memorandum furnilhed 
by Mr. Leach. “ It may not be unintereiling to collectors 
to obferve, that all the fpecies of this genus, except M. 
majalis, (brink fo much after death, that it is neceflary to 
remove the contents of the abdomen, and to fill it to the 
natural fize with cotton; which may eafily be done when 
the infeCt is in a recent (late, by making an incifion on the 
under fide.” Linn. Tranf. vol. xi. p. 35-49, and 242-251. 
Plate 7, 8, 18. 
MELOLON'THA, f. The name of a very peculiar fort 
of beetle, which is found in all parts of England, and in 
many other countries, among trees and hedges. Ths 
French call them hanneton, and we cock-chafers, dorrs, and 
by many other names. The name melolontlia is as old 
as Ariflotle, and is given this creature from its feeding 
on the blofloms of the crab or wild apple. See Scarabveus 
melolontlia. 
MELOME'LI, f. A word ufed by the ancients to ex- 
prefs honey impregnated with quinces. 
MEL'ON, f. [Fr. from melo, Lat.] A plant. See Cu- 
cu mis. —The flower of the melon conlifts of one leaf, which 
is of the expanded bell fliape, cut into feveral fegments, 
and exactly like thofe of the cucumber: fome of thefe 
flowers are barren, not adhering to the embrio; others 
are fruitful, growing upon the embrio, which is after¬ 
wards changed into a fruit, for the molt part of an 
oval fliape, lmooth or wrinkled, and divided into three 
feminal apartments, which feem to be cut into two parts, 
and contain many oblong feeds. Miller. —The fruit.—We 
remember the fi(h which we did eat in Egypt freely; the 
cucumbers and the melons. Num. xi. 5. 
JF«ter-MELON. See Anguria. 
MEL'ON-THIS'TLE,y! See Cactus. —The whole plant 
of the melon-thillle hath a Angular appearance. Miller. 
MELONGE'NA,/ in botany. See Solanum. 
MELOPE'PO, J'. [from melo, a melon, and pepo, a 
pompion.] The name of various round kinds of gourd. 
See Cucumis. 
MELO'RA, a fmall ifland in the Mediterranean, near 
the coafl: of Etruria: four miles well of Leghorn. 
ME'LOS. See Milo. _ 
MELO'T (John Baptift), a learned Frenchman, was 
born at Dijon in 1697, and died at Paris in 1760. He was 
librarian to the king, and wrote fome papers in the Me¬ 
moirs of the Academy of Infcriptions, of which he was 
a member. He was alfo editor of Jourville’s Life of St. 
Louis, with a gloflary. 
MELO'THRIA, f. [a name borrowed by Linnaeus, in 
his Hortus Cliftbrtianus, from the of Diofcorides, 
one of the fynonyms of his ay.irt'Ka^ or white vine, 
which is fuppofed to be the Bryonia, a plant of the (lime 
habit and natural order as the prefent.] In botany, a ge¬ 
nus of the clafs triandria, order monogynia, natural order 
cucurbitaceae. Generic charafters—Calyx: perianthium 
fuperior, of one leaf, bell-(haped, fwelling, five-toothed, 
deciduous. Corolla: of one petal, wheel-fliaped; tube 
the length of the calyx, to which it is on every fide united; 
limb flat, in five deep very blunt fegments, dilated out¬ 
wards. Staniina: filaments three, conical, infertcd into 
the tube of the corolla, and equal to it in length; an- 
tlieras of two roundifh lobes, comprefled. Piltillum: ger- 
men almolt entirely inferior, ovate-oblong, pointed ; (tyle 
cylindrical, the length of the ftamens; iligmas three, 
thickifli, oblong. Pericarpium : berry ovate-oblong, in¬ 
ternally divided into three parts, without partitions. 
Seeds : feveral, oblong, comprefled.— Efential Chara 6 ler „ 
Calyx bell-ihaped, five-cleft; .corolla wheel-fliaped, of one 
petal; berry of three cells, with many feeds. 
Melothria pendula, pendulous melothria, fmall creep¬ 
ing cucumber, or American bryony; a Angle fpecies. Na¬ 
tive of North America and the Well Indies. Root an- 
T uuah 
