The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1894-11-06
A GENUINE OLD MYTH.
The Origin of Bees Attributed to Sponta-
neous Generation,

|
neous Generation.
Superstltution is hard thing to smash.
| fOrscenturies the theory was widely accept
ed that wild geese were Matched from barn.
| acles. The supposed fact was authenticated
by such mass of testimony that there was
no controverting it apparently. Only with
| in the last few years has natural science
been able to dispose of another notion
| equally absurd-nan.ely, that bees are pro-
duced by spontaneous generation from
the decaying carcasscs of cattle, lions and
other beasts.
After all. it was not very long ago that
| the theory of spontaneous generation was
| overthrow. So long as belief in such a
phenomenon was held, it is easy to see how
! people might have made such mistake in
regard to bees For there is a certain in
sect known as the 'drone fly - which lays
in putrefying flesh. The larvae Matched
| from these eggs, are eventually trans
formed into flies. which looks so much like
honey bees that even naturalist would be
apt to mistake one for the other offhand.
| So it came about that the ancients accept
ed this notion of the spontaneous genera
| ton Of bees from the dead bodies of ami
Aristotle. made record of the phenomenon.
| 1t is referred to in classical Greek htera-
ture. The myth runs back for at least $500
years and probably much farther. It pre-
vailed not only in Europe, but in northern
Africa and in parts of Asia. Through the
middle ages it continued to be entertained
and the the friend of Luther, the learned
and pious Melanchthon, referred to it as
nj for fho odro
| bees.
| In ancient times there were no boards of
health and carcasses of cattle and other an
| imals were often permitted to lie around
| and decompose. The drone flies propagate
under favorable circumstances with aston
| ishing iapidity, and the phenomenon of
| their development was commonly open to
| the observation of everybody. It is not
surprising that the ignorant should have
mistaken the insects for bees. though as a
matter of fact. bees are clearly animals
and never alight on carcasses. The bee has
| four wings and the fly only two; the female
bee has sting and the fly has no sting.
Nevertheless, the likeness between the two
is very striking from the point of view of
| the superficial observer. TN
| The drone fly belongs to family which
| includes many handsomely colored flies,
| very fond of.fiowers. Their coloring con-
sists, in many cases. of yellow crossbands
and spots on the abdomen, with similar
marks on the thorax; or else they are
clothed with hairy covering of different
colors. The drone fly is of du1ler coloring
| than most of the species of the family. 1t
| is very like bee in it's markings: it fire.
| quents flowers and behaves among them as
| a bee does. Even in flying it carries it's
| hind legs so as to initiate the pollen
| freighted limbs of the bee. In fact, it ex-
| hibits one of the most wonderful cases of
| mimicIy in nature.
| The fly appears in great abundance at
| this season of the year, when the days te-
| come chilly. 1t is seen in a semi-torpid
| state. either sucking flowers or crawling
| slowly upon walls and fences. The larya
| lives usually in dung heaps and cesspools.
| 1t has long tall with telescope arrange
ment for prolonging or shortening it, enab-
| ling the immature insect to remain several
| inches below the surface and to pump air
| from above. 1t frequents sewers and
putrid waters, CT awltng out finally to go
| into the chrysalis stage.
Insects imported into this country from
abroad -among them the honey bee-have
| usually appeared first on the Atlantic coast,
spreading thence westward. Strange to
say. the drone fly seems to have followed
an opposite course. 1t exists in Japan and
| eastern Siberia and from thence it is be-
| lieved to have migrated to the Pacific coast
of North America, nobody knows how long
| ago. 1t did not spread eastward at once,
| because the necessary conditions for its ex-
| stence were wanting on the immense plains
| it had to cross-just as the potato bug lived
| in the Rocky mountains pL a plant native
| to that region, and did not spread eastward
until civilization brought the potato with it.
| thus bridging over for the beetle, the dis
lance between it's native region and the At
antic coast. The condition brought by
civilization. which favored the rapid east
ward progress of the drone fly, consisted in
drains, sewers and cesspools.
DR.. G. r. o. Sacken of Washington saws
that, except the silkworm and the honey
bee, no other insect can show an historical
record equal to that of the drone fly. The
record begins in the dusk of prehist ORIG
times and continues up to the, present date.
In its earliest days it appears like a
myth, misunderstood creature, praised
for qualities never possessed. theme in
prose and poetry: later on. the bubble of
its glory having burst, it spread with the
| human race and vies with it in prodigies
of fecundIty.
The myth of Aristaeus, demigod, who
taught men to keep bees, is the su bject of
| an episode in the Georges of Virgil. The
substance of the story is that Aristaeus,
| son of Apollo and of Thessalian girl. once
upon time lost his bees by famine and
| disease. In distress he applied to his
mother and through her Intervention he was
| initiated into a mystic rite by which
swarm of bees was produced from a
slaughtered OK.
| 1t was sometimes alleged that the queen
| bee was produced from the brain of the OK
and the ordinary bees from it's 1esh. Other
writers improved upon the myth asserting
| that while bees came from oxen exclusive
| ly, wasps originated from asses, drones
| from horses and hornets from mules. Ger
| tain theorists declared that a horse must
| have been bitten by wolf in order that IL
| flesh should produce hornets.
Commentators have pretended tn diseor