198 liARON WALCKENAER ON THE INSECTS 



of Julus., given to a genus of insects by the moderns, corresponds 

 exactly to the Julus or Joulos of the ancients ; especially if the modern" 

 signification of the word be restrained to the genus Julus of Leach*, as 

 defined in his excellent work upon the polypodous insects, excluding the 

 Polydesmata and other genera, which have with propriety been removed 

 from it. The Juli which the ancients had in view were probably the 

 terrestrial Julus and the Julus sabulosus of modern entomologists, and 

 the common Julus of M. Soavi, erroneously confounded with the former 

 two. These insects are found on the earth under stones ; they feed 

 upon the leaves and fruits which fall upon the ground and are there 

 decomposed ; but they neither injure the vine nor any other plant. 

 As they are found under the shadow of the vine, as well as in all other 

 dark and humid places, the injuries arising from another cause have 

 been attributed to them. 



IV. Biurus. — Grillo-talpa. — Mole-cricket. — The word which, after 

 Spondyle and Julios, has the least relation to our subject of those which 

 we have passed in review is Biurus. I find it only in an isolated pas- 

 sage of Cicero, cited by Pliny, in which it is said that this animal de- 

 stroys the vines of Campania. Thus, it is not mentioned as an enemy 

 to the vine, correctly speaking, but as injuring the vines of Campania 

 in particular, by its rapid multiplication. Perhaps also in this passage, 

 which Pliny only quotes incidentally, Cicero was speaking of a particular 

 case in which the Biuri were seen to be injurious to the new planta- 

 tions of vines in Campania, though they would be incapable of injuring 

 them when the roots had acquired sufficient hardness to resist their 

 attacks. Whatever be the fact, the etymology of the word Bi- Uros, 

 which, as we have seen, implies an insect armed at its posterior extre- 

 mity with a double tail, directs us to the Mole-cricket and the larger 

 species of locusts (Sauterelles), the only insects so formed that can 

 answer to the particulars specified, from their size and the destruction 

 which they cause, and of ravaging vine plantations extending over a 

 whole country. But the locust having been well known to the Latins 

 inider the name of Locusla, and to the Greeks under that of Acrisf, 

 it follows that the name of Biurus is applicable only to the Mole- 

 cricket. The probability of this is increased by these circumstances : 

 that this insect is the largest which is known in our parts of Europe, it 

 being not less than an inch and half in length ; that it is one of the 

 most singular in its formation, and one of the most destructive ; that it 

 cannot be recognised in any of the descriptions of insects transmitted to 

 us by the ancients ; and lastly, that, in all the writings which they have 

 left us, the name Biurus is the only one that can be applied to it. 



• Leach, Zoological Miscellany, 1817, 8vo, vol. iii. p. 32 to 48. 

 t Vulgate and Septuagint versions of the Bible. Aldrovandus, Dc Insectis, 

 p. 160. 



