These persons say also, that if the swarm is entirely lost, it may be replaced by the aid of the belly[1] of an ox newly killed, covered over with dung. Virgil also says[2] that this may be done with the body of a young bull, in the same way that the carcase of the horse produces wasps and hornets, and that of the ass beetles, Nature herself effecting these changes of one substance into another. But in all these last, sexual intercourse is to be perceived as well, though the characteristics of the offspring are pretty much the same as those of the bee.