[5] It was classified there erroneously until the Danish zoologist Johan Christian Fabricius corrected its name in his Systema entomologiae in 1775.

[6] The adult Spanish fly is a slender, soft-bodied metallic and iridescent golden-green insect, one of the blister beetles.

[10] Zoologists note that the conspicuous coloration, the presence of a powerful toxin, and the adults' aggregating behaviour in full view of any predators strongly suggest aposematism among the blistering meloid beetles.

[14] Adult beetles primarily feed on leaves of ash, lilac, amur privet, honeysuckle and white willow.

[17] Arthur Kendrick Ford was imprisoned in 1954 for the unintended deaths of two women surreptitiously given candies laced with cantharidin, which he had intended to act as an aphrodisiac.

[26] Dawamesk, a spread or jam made in North Africa and containing hashish, almond paste, pistachio nuts, sugar, orange or tamarind peel, cloves, and other various spices, occasionally included cantharides.

[27] In ancient China, the beetles were mixed with human excrement, arsenic, and wolfsbane to make the world's first recorded stink bomb.

[29] In the 19th century, Spanish fly was used externally mainly as blistering agent and local irritant; also, in chronic gonorrhoea, paralysis, lepra, ulcers therapy.

L. vesicatoria was used internally as a diuretic stimulant[citation needed] An extract from Spanish fly was thought to be a strong aphrodisiac, and various love potions were named thusly.