And soon after he says of wasps:
"All the sorte of these live upon flesh, contrarie to the manner of bees, which will not touch a dead carcasse."
This brings Shakepeare's lines to mind:
" 'Tis seldom when the bee doth leave her comb
In the dead carrion."
Henry IV., Part II. Act IV. Sc. 4.
The Belfast News Letter of Friday, Aug. 10, 1832, gives one of these rare occurrences:
"A few days ago, when the sexton was digging a grave in Temple Cranney (a burying-place in Portaferry, co. Down), he came to a coffin which had been there two or three years: this he thought necessary to remove. In this operation, he was startled by a great quantity of wild bees issuing forth from the coffin; and upon lifting the lid, it was found that they had formed their combs in the dead man's skull and mouth, which were full. The nest was made of the hair of the head, together with shavings that had been put in the coffin with the corpse."
This quotation is given in an interesting work of Mr. Patterson's, Letters on the Natural History of the Insects mentioned in Shakspeare's Plays: London, 1838.
Your correspondent R. T. shows that serpents were supposed to be generated by human carcases. Pliny says: