Bugonia (/bjuːˈɡoʊniə/; Ancient Greek: βουγονία bougoníā) was a folk practice in the ancient Mediterranean region based on the belief that bees were spontaneously generated from a cow's carcass. By extension, it was thought that fumigation with cow dung was beneficial to the health of the hive.

It is possible that bugonia had more currency as a poetic and learned trope than as an actual practice. The process is described by Virgil in the fourth book of the Georgics. Multiple other writers mention the practice.

A detailed description of bugonia is found in the Byzantine Geoponica:

Build a house, ten cubits high, with all the sides of equal dimensions, with one door, and four windows, one on each side; put an ox into it, thirty months old, very fat and fleshy; let a number of young men kill him by beating him violently with clubs, so as to mangle both flesh and bones, but taking care not to shed any blood; let all the orifices, mouth, eyes, nose etc. be stopped up with clean and fine linen, impregnated with pitch; let a quantity of thyme be strewed under the reclining animal, and then let windows and doors be closed and covered with a thick coating of clay, to prevent the access of air or wind. After three weeks have passed, let the house be opened, and let light and fresh air get access to it, except from the side from which the wind blows strongest. Eleven days afterwards, you will find the house full of bees, hanging together in clusters, and nothing left of the ox but horns, bones and hair.

The myth of Aristaeus was an archetype of this practice, serving to instruct bee keepers on how to recover from the loss of their bees.

The Greek βουγονία (bougoníā) comes from βοῦς (boûs), meaning 'ox', and γονή (gonḗ), meaning 'progeny'. Furthermore, Greek βουγενής μέλισσαι (bougenḗs mélissai) and Latin taurigenae apes meant 'ox-born bees', and the ancients would sometimes simply call honey bees βουγενής ('ox-born') or taurigenae ('bull-born').

One explanation claims that any of the Batesian mimics of bees with scavenger larvae were mistaken for bees ("footless at first, anon with feet and wings"). More specifically, the hoverfly Eristalis tenax has received particular attention. While not providing honey, these flies would have been productive pollinators.

Others argue that beekeepers would have understood that flies do not produce honey and give the explanation that Apis mellifera (western honey bee) resorts to any cavity, and in particular cavities of trees and rocks, but also in skulls and in thoracic cavities of large animal carcasses in which to construct a nest. There is one, possibly apocryphal, attestation of actual usage of a man's skull by wasps.