Note 1835 — Chapter VI · PASTORAL LIFE.
Reading edition
The absence of these tormentors of cattle was considered a matter of great importance by the ancients. Virgil, where he is giving directions respecting the best pastures suited to the youthful mothers of the herds, celebrates the exploits of the gadfly:
Saltibus in vacuis pascant, et plena secundum
Flumina: muscus ubi, et viridissima gramine ripa,
Speluncæque tegant, et saxea procubet umbra.
Est lucos Silari circa, ilicibusque virentem
Plurimus Alburnum volitans, cui nomen asilo
Romanum est, œstrum Graii vertere vocantes:
Asper, acerba sonans: quo tota exterrita sylvis
Diffugiunt armenta; furit mugitibus æther
Concussus, sylvæque et sicci ripa Tanagri.
Georg. iii. 143, sqq.
See the note of Philargyrius in loc. Aristot. Hist. Animal, iv. 4. v. 19.