INSECTS INJURIOUS TO THE VINE. 307 



n'hich cannot he referred to the Cantharis of the GeoponicJcs. — 

 Lethrus Cephalotes. — Grey Weevils. 



Ancient authors have given the name of Cantharis to certain 

 insects which they used, after having pounded them, as an 

 ingredient in an unguent or liniment, which was rubbed on the 

 vines to preserve them from the attacks of insects : but it is only 

 in the Geoponicks that, in speaking of this use of the Cantha- 

 rides, it is said these insects are produced on or in the vine, 

 and are injurious to it ; and the author or authors of this com- 

 pilation give also a receipt for macerating Cantharides in oil, to 

 be used as a remedy against the injurious effects on the vine 

 of these very insects.^ 



We have seen that the word Caiitharis was employed by the 

 Greeks as well as by the Romans, to designate Coleoptera, or 

 Beetles generally ; that this word was often applied to Coleop- 

 terous insects of brilliant colours, or to those which possessed 

 corrosive or blistering properties ; and that it was frequently 

 used for such insects as were remarkable from their injurious 

 effects, whether of large or small size. 



Among the first we have cited the Mylabris, which feeds 

 on the endive, Mylabris Cichorii of modern entomologists, 

 so well described by Dioscorides ; and the Lytta, or Melo'e vesi- 

 catoria, the Cantharides of the shops. *^ 



Among those of smaller size is the Scarabwus parvus, Can- 

 tharis dictus of Pliny, the Curculio, or Calandra granaria of 

 modern entomologists ; the Curculio frumentarius, Linn., the 

 Apion frumentarium of Schoenherr and Latreille. This last is 

 of a brightish red colour, the former of a dull yellow ; and I 

 consider it Pliny's insect, as it attacks wheat, while the other 

 is chiefly injurious to the oat."^ 



These indications leave us in a good deal of uncertainty 

 respecting the Cantharis of the Geoponicks. However, as it 

 must have been on account of their corrosive or vesicatory 

 properties that the Cantharides were used by the ancients in the 



*• Latreille in Cuvier's Regne Anim. vol. v. p. 63 ; Oliv. Coleop, iii. p. 47. pi. 1 ; 

 Schcen. Syn. 1817, 8vo. p. 31; Mylabris, vol. i. pt. 3. p. 31 ; Oliv. Ent. iii. 47, 7, 

 pi. i. fig. b, c. 



'^ Latreille, dans Cuvier, t. v. p. 67 ; Schoenherr, Synonymia, t. i. p. 20. 



■^ Schoenherr, Synonymia Ctirculionidum, t. i. p. 283, No. 75, Genus Apion ; 

 Walckenaer, Faun. Paris, t. i. p. 237, No. 15 ; Latreille Gener. Crustaceor et Insect. 

 t. ii. p. 249 et 271 ; ibid. Cuvier, t. v. p. 88 ; Oliv. Entom. vol. v. 83, 10, 196. 



