324 BARON WALCKENAER ON THE 



word Dibapki,^ to designate an insect which the Arabs call 

 Kermes, and which gives out, when treated with vinegar, a red 

 colour, in a word —the cochineal. The species which produce 

 this colour, in Europe, are Coccus Ilicis, which feeds on the 

 Ilex or Holm-oak,' and this therefore may be the insect men- 

 tioned in the Bible as destroying a tree affording shade : and 

 Coccus Polonicus,^ which adheres to the roots of Scleranthus 

 ammus and other plants. 



The Coccus of the vine does not produce this colour ; but 

 the similarity of these insects, and their generic affinities, it 

 would appear, has caused them to be confounded with the 

 other Cocci or the Tholaath Dihaphi, or at least occasioned 

 their being included under one and the same denomination : 

 just as we say — much more incorrectly — the worm of the 

 apple, and the worm of the nut, although these are the larvae 

 of insects of very different genera. In the same way the word 

 Thola or Tholaath was used in the Bible for vermin, louse, 

 little insect, insignificant, vile, and contemptible, as Phteire; 

 but the epithet Dibaphi employed to designate the Kermes 

 or insect used in dyeing, which was sometimes added to the 

 word Thola or Tholaath, sufficiently indicates the similarity 

 of the species, the kind of insect or vermin designated by the 

 word which was so injurious to the vine and some other 

 plants. 



11. On the means used in destroying the Insects injurious to 

 the Vine. 



From the recipes given by Pliny and Columella to protect 

 the vines from the insects which attacked them, it would 

 appear that the Coccus was much more injurious to the vine in 

 ancient times than it is at present. These recipes consisted 

 in rubbing the stalks and branches with unctuous substances, 

 such as oil or the fat of bears ; substances possessing blistering 

 properties were also sometimes used for the same purpose. 



Our modern cultivators prevent the injuries of the Coccus by 

 the annual pruning to which I have already alluded. 



"^ Bocliart, Hieron. p. 22. 



' Coccus Ilicis, Fabr. Sysf. rhyngotor. p. 308 ; Reaumur, Insect. IV. tab. 5 ; 

 Garidel Plantes des Environs d'Aix, p. 250. pi. 35 ; Boyer de Fonscolombe, Ann. 

 de la Societe Entomologique, t. iii. p. 210. 



™ Coccus Polonicus, Fabr. Syst. rhyngotor, p. 310, No. 26 ; Frisch. Insect. 56; 

 Walckenaer, Faun. Paris, t. ii. p. 363. 



