THE 



POPULAR SCIENCE 

 MONTHLY. 



MAY, 1874. 



THE GRAPE PHYLLOXERA. 



By CHAS. V. EILEY, M. A., Ph.D. 



THIS is an insect which is attracting mnch attention just now, and 

 which has held a very prominent place in economic entomological 

 literature during the past five years. It has occurred to me that it 

 would not be uninteresting to the many readers of The Popular Sci- 

 ence Monthly to have the facts now known about it laid before them 

 in a popular form, and with as little of the nomenclature of science as 

 is consistent with precision. I therefore transmit the following advance 

 matter from the forthcoming sixth "Entomological Report of Missouri," 

 very slightly modified to adapt it to the pages of the Monthly. 



To many the term " Phylloxera " is void of meaning, so that it may 

 not be amiss to say, at the outset, that it is a term derived from the 

 Greek [(pvXXov and ^rjpog), meaning withered-leaf, and founded many 

 years ago,^ by Boyer de Fonscolombe, to designate a peculiar genus 

 of plant-lice. It was originally erected for a species {Phylloxera quer- 

 cus) quite common in Europe on the under side of oak-leaves, which, in 

 consequence of its punctures, wear a withered appearance. The genus 

 now comprises several species, none of them affecting man's interests 

 except the species under consideration {vastatrix Planchon). This, on 

 account of its injurious work, has acquired such prominence that the 

 generic term has come to be used in a broader sense, and to indicate 

 at once the insect and the disease it produces ; just as in botany the 

 term oiclium, though originally referring only to a genus of crypto- 

 gamic plants, is now popularly employed to designate the mildew on 

 grape-vines, caused by Oldium TucJceri. 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL. 

 The first published reference to this insect was made in the year 

 1856,'' by Dr. Asa Fitch, the State Entomologist of New York, who 



^ " Anuales de la Societe Entomologique de France," tome iii., p. 222. 

 " "New York Entomological Reports," vol. i., p. 168. 



VOL. V. — 1 



