18 
About the time when I published my above-quoted article 
(p. 3) in the Entom. Monthly Magazine, and showed that Samson’s 
bee was nothing but /. tenar, I communicated my solution of 
the story of Samson to the eminent Professor of scriptural 
exegesis in Heidelberg Dr. Adalbert Merx. At the same time 
I handed to him a box, containing about half a dozen of pin- 
ned specimens of Jristalis tenaxy. He received this communi- 
cation with evident delight, and recognized that it offered a 
simple solution of a text which had been discussed for cen- 
turies. Soon afterwards, he published in the german , Protestan- 
tische Kirchenzeitung* No. 17, 1887, p. 389—392 a learned 
article, entitled: ,Der Honig im Cadaver des Liwen* (The 
Honey in the Carcase of the Lion) (1). It contains a summary 
of the discussions provoked by Samson’s bees, and the contro- 
versies of AnpHons Tostatus, Bishop of Avila (7 1454), of 
Lorinus or Ayranon (1559—1634), and the Jesuit BonrrERE 
(1573—1643). Professor Merx concludes by accepting the re- 
semblance of JH. tenax to a bee as a natural solution of the 
question. ,All the persons, says he, to whom I showed the 
specimens of Hristalis at once recognized bees in them, except 
a medical man who had some knowledge of entomology.* (2) 
It is very probable that many other instances of Bugonia 
occur in Oriental literature, but it is beyond my province 
to look after them. In my scanty reading of such authors, I 
found only one instance which seems to point that way. Mas- 
soudi (died 955 in Cairo) in his ,Golden Meadows“ (translation 
by Barbier de Meynard and Pavet de Courteille, Paris 1861, 
vol. III, p. 233) relates a conversation which took place in 
Arabia and of which this is a fragment: ,Had the bees which 
produced this honey deposited it in the body of a large animal, 
(1) The translation of Prof MERX’s paper will be found in Suppl. VII. 
(2) JOHN CURTIS, Brit. nt. Diptera, N. 432. ristalis nubilipennis, 
says: I have had some difficulty to convince persons totally ignorant of Ento- 
mology, that the Hristales were not bees, and it is worthy of observation that, 
when resting, the JMristalis tenax, and probably the whole genus, heave their 
hodies up and down as bees do, as if they were panting,“ 
