i<S2 BARON WALCKENAER ON THE INSECTS 



perfect insects ; that these insects were all of the order Coleoptera, 

 vulgarly Beetles ; and that Cantharis was a general term denoting 

 several species of beetles, but not all the species indifferently. This 

 word is always employed by the ancient authors to denote those species 

 of Coleoptera, or beetles, which are brilliantly coloured and remarkable 

 for their vesicant or venomous properties ; but those authors diifer 

 greatly from each other with regard to the species which they have in 

 view. 



Thus the Cantharis of Aristotle appears to be the same species as that 

 mentioned by Aristophanes* ; but it is an insect very different from that 

 with black and yellow bands, Avhich has been so well described by Di- 

 oscorides that it is impossible to be mistaken by modern naturalists. 

 To this latter insect must be referred the winged Cantharis of a fulvous 

 colour, to which on account of its malignity and mortal poison Epipha- 

 nius compares heresy f- The Cantharis of OrigenJ, produced from the 

 larva of an insect which lives in the flesh of the ass, is evidently a dif- 

 ferent species from that of Epiphanius and Dioscorides, and also from that 

 of Aristotle and Aristophanes, though more resembling the latter. 



Plinj' mentions several species of Cantharis §, which for want of exact 

 details are difficult to recognise ; but when he says (book xviii. chap. 44.), 

 "Est et Cantharis dicttts Scarabaus parvus frmnenta erodens\\,'' we in- 

 stantly fix upon the small and formidable coleopterous insect to which 

 he here gives the name of Cantharis. Theophrastus, who has also men- 

 tioned the little insect engendered in corn, gives it the name of Can- 

 tharis. 



From what has been said it appears that to find the insect named 

 Cantharis considered by the ancients as injurious to the vine, we must 

 seek for it among the perfect insects of the class Coleoptera ; among 

 those which are brilliantly coloured and distinguished by their vesicant 

 venomous quality ; and among the largest as well as the smallest species 

 of that class. 



IX. Kampe and Phtheir. — I class these two words together for an 

 instant, regardless of their different signification, because I find them 

 united in a passage of the Geoponics^, the only place in which the first 

 is mentioned in connexion with the vine. The author gives a recipe used 

 by the Africans to preserve the vine from the Phtheirs and Kampes 

 which infest it. Ctesias also mentions the Phtheirs M'hich destroy the 

 vine in Greece**. 



* Aristophanes quoted In Aldrovandus De Insect., chap. iii. vol. i. p. 180. 



■)■ St. Epiphanius, PffWrtr. Rom., p. 1067, A. edit. Petav. 



J Origen, Contra Cels., book iv. chap. 57. p. 549, A. edit. Delavue. 



§ Pliny, Hist. Nat., book xxix. chap. 30; vol. iii. p. 107. edit. Miller. 



jl Pliny, Hist. Nat., chap. 44. or 17. vol. vi. p. 138 of the edition of Franzius. 



^ Geoponica, edit. Niclas, chap. xxx. vol. iii. p. 485. 



•• Ctesias, Indkorim, chap, xx p. 253. edit. Baehi-. Frankf. 1824, 8vo. 



