9 
sequel that, as late as 1662, there was a Dutch savant, in whose 
presence an /. tenax was produced from putrescent matter, and 
who actually took it for a honey-bee, and the case before him 
as an instance of Bugonia! 
The thesis which I maintain is, that it is to /. tenax alone, 
that the origin of the belief in the Bugonia is due; in other 
words, that if this particular fly had not existed, the belief 
probably would never had arisen. But I shall show at the same 
time that there existed some other bee-, wasp-, hornet-, and 
humble-bee-like flies which, swarming about cattle and horses, 
served as subsidiary agents in’ perpetuating the Bugonia-craze. 
HE. tenax has the following qualifications which make it pre- 
eminently fitted for assuming the réle of an oxen-born bee: 
1.° It is more like a honey-bee than any other fly; the 
other flies, which have been named in connection with the 
Bugonia, have a different aspect; the Oestridae are more like 
humble-bees; Helophilus is more like a wasp. 
2.° It oviposits on carcases in a state of far advanced de- 
composition in which its larvae thrive, and these habits cor- 
respond to the tradition of the oxen-born bee. The wasp-like 
Helophilus, a close relative of Hristalis in the zoological system, 
and developing, like that fly, from a rat-tailed larva, but of 
much less common occurrence, gave rise to the belief that wasps 
were also produced from dead animals, a craze which always 
prospered alongside of the Bugonia. As to the other flies, sub- 
sidiaries, as I have called them, to the same superstition, the 
Ocstridae (Hypoderma, Gastrophilus and Cephenemyia) we shall 
return to them in the sequel. 
3.° The very common occurrence of Fristalis tenax, and 
(as I will show in the paragraph about its geographical distri- 
bution) the truly fabulous rapidity of its propagation under 
favorable circumstances, must have struck, from the earliest 
times, the eyes and the imagination of the ignorant crowd, and, 
combined with the swarming of the fly round carcases and 
its bee-like aspect, have led quite naturally towards the be- 
lief in the Bugonia. 
