500 LEPIDOPTERA. 



France," refers this insect to the genus Butalis, which name 

 I have tliouglit proper now to adopt. 



For more than a century, this insect has prevailed in 

 the western parts of France, and has gradually been ex- 

 tending in an easterly and northerly direction. In the year 

 1736, the French naturalist Reaumur published an interest- 

 ing account of it, illvTstrated by rude figures, in the second 

 volume of his instructive " Mcnioires." He found it to be 

 very injurious to stored barley, at Lu^on, in the province 

 of La Vendee, and ascertained that it destroyed wheat also. 

 In the adjacent province of Angoumois, it continued to 

 increase for many years, till at length the attention of gov- 

 ernment was directed to its fearful depredations. This was 

 in 1700, when the insect was found to swarm in all the 

 wheat-fields and granaries of Ano;oumois and of the neio;h- 



or? o 



boring provinces, and the afflicted inhabitants were thereby 

 deprived not only of their principal staple, wherewith they 

 were wont to pay their annual rents, their taxes, and their 

 tithes, but were threatened with flimine and pestilence from 

 the want of wholesome bread. Two members of the Acad- 

 emy of Sciences of Paris, the celebrated Duhamel du ]\Ion- 

 ceau and M. Tillet, were then commissioned to visit the 

 province of Angoumois, and inquire into the nature of this 

 destructive insect. The result of their inquiries was com- 

 municated to the Academy, in whose history and memoirs 

 it may be found, and was also subsequently republished 

 in a separate volume.* From this work, and from the 

 " Mcmoires " of Reaumur, the following particulars are de- 

 rived. 



The Angoumois grain-insect, in its perfected state, is a 

 little moth, of a pale cinnamon-brown color above, having 

 the lustre of satin, with narrow broadly fringed hind wings 

 of an ashen or leaden color, two thread-like antennae, con- 



* "Histoire d'un Insecte qui devore les Grains de 1' Angoumois," 12mo, Paris, 

 1762. See also " Histoire de 1' Acad^mie Koyale des Sciences," Annee 1761, jj. 66, 

 and " Mcmoires," p. 289, 4to, Pans, 1763. 



