The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-11-04

uauy transformed into flies. which LOOK
50 much like honey bees that even a
NAT uIaAst would be apt to mistake one
Tor the other om-hand
So it came about that the ancients ac-
cepted this notion OF the spontaneous gen
Grafton of bees from the dead bodies OF
ANIMALS. Naturalsts of old even the
great Aristotle. made record of the phe-
homenon. 1t Is referred to in classical
Greek literature. The myth runs back for
at least $500 years. and probably much
farther. It prevailed not only in Europe
out IN Northern Africa and in parts of
ASIA Through the middle ages il con-
unued to be entertained and the friend
OF Luther the learned and pious Me
Iahchton' referred TO it as a divine pro-
vision for the reproduction of bees.
IN ancient times there We're no boards of
health, and carcasses of cattle and other
ANIMALS We're often permitted to lie around
and decompose. The drone flies propagate
under favorable circumstances with as
tonlShing rapidity, and the phenomenon of
their development was commonly open to
the observation of everybody. 1t is not
surprising that the ignorant should have
mistaken the insects for bees. though, as a
matter of act bees are ceanly animals
ana never alight on carcasses. The bee
mas TOUR wings and the fly only two; the
female bee has sting, and the fly has no
sting Nevertheless, the likeness between
view of the superficial observer.
The drone fly belongs to family which
includes many handsomely colored flies,
very fond OF flowers. Their coloring con-
slsts, in many cases of yellow crossbands
and spots on the abdomen, with similar
marks on the thoraX; or else they are
clothed with a hairy covering of Qtfte -ent
colors. The drore fly is of GG:ler color
ing than most of the species of the family.
1t is very like a bee in its markings; it
frequents flowers and behaves among
them as a bee does. Even in flying it car
ries its hind legs so as to initiate the pol
len-freighted limbs of the bee. In fact, it
exhibits one of the most wonderful cases
Of mimicry in nature.
The fly appears in great abundance al
this season Of the year, when the days be
come chilly. 1t is seen in d sem-torp3d
state, either sucking flowers or crawling
slowly upon walls and fences The larva
| lives usually in dung heaps and cesspools.
It has a long tail, with a telescope ar
rangenent for prolonging or shortening it,
| enabling the immature insect to remain
several inches below the surface and 10
pump air from above. 1t frequents sewers
and putrid waters, crawling out finally TO
so into the chrysalis stage.
Insects imported into this country frcm
| 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. It eX,
lists in Japan ana Eastern Siberia, ana
from thence it is believed to have mi
grated to the Pacific coast of North Amer
lea. nobody knows how long ago. II did
not spread eastward at once, because the
| necessary conditions for its existence
were wanting on the immense plains il
had to cross-tust as the potato bug lived
in the Rocky Mountains on plant ma
tive TO that region, and did not spread
eastward until civilization brought the
! potato with it, thus bridging over for the
beetle the distance between it's native re-
/ giOn and the Atlantic coast. The cOndi-
| ton brought by civilization, which IA
| vored the rapid eastward progress Of the
| drone fly, consisted in drains, sewers
! and CesSpools.
DR.. c. r. o. Sacken, to whom the writer
! is indebted, says that, except the silk
worm and the honey bee, no other insect
| can show an historical record equal 20
/ that of the drOne fly. The record begins
! in the dusk of prehistoric times and con-
| tinues up to the present date. In its ear
| lest days it appears like a myth, a mis-
| understood creature. praised for qualities
! it never possessed, a theme in prose and
| poetry; later on, the bubble of it's glory
| having burst, it spreads with the human
| race and Vies with it in prodigies of fe-
| cundity.
The myth of Aristaeus demgod, VINO
| taught men to keep bees, is the subject 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 a time lost his bees by famine
and disease. In distress he applied to his
mother, and through her Intervention he
was initiated in a mystic rite by which
a swarm Of bees was produced from a
slaughtered OK.
1t was sometimes alleges that the queen
bee was produced from the brains of the
OK. and the ordinary bees from its flesh.
Other writers improved upon the myth
by asserting that while bees came from
oxen exclusively, wasps originated from
asses, drones from horses and hornets
from mules. Certain theorists declared
that a horse must have been bitten by a
wolf in order that its flesh should produce
| hornets.
| Commenta tors have pretended to dis
! cover an early appearance of the myth in
! literature in the story of Samson, in the
| Book of Judges, Xiv:S. In the vineyards
of Timnah Samson had killed a lion and
| after a while, on his way to fetch his
! bride, he turned aside to see the carcass
| of the animal. Behold, there was a swarm
| of bees in the body of the lion and honey.
| Samson took the honey in his hand and
went on. eating as he went. 1t must have
! been, however, that the carcass had been
reduced to the state of clean skeleton,
in which honey bees could take shelter.