BV WHICH THE VINE IS INFESTED. 203 



but pear and apple trees arc more exposed to their attacks than the 

 vine, and they are more prejudicial in Germany and the South than in 

 our climates. 



The Eumolpus of the vine, vulgarly called the Coupe-hourgeon, is 

 a third species of the Coleoptera still more destructive than the two 

 -which we have just mentioned ; but this insect, of which we shall pre- 

 sently treat more at length, like the two preceding ones, possesses but 

 little brilliancy of colour. 



It appears then that among all the Coleoptera or Scarabaei which in- 

 fest the vine, there are only two species closely allied, and which must 

 have been considered as one by the ancients, as they have long been 

 by the moderns, which appear to correspond by their colour to the par- 

 ticulars which we have obtained in our examination of the ancient texts 

 relative to the word Cantharis. These two species are the Rhynchites 

 Betuleti and the Rhijtichites Bacchus of modern naturalists ; tlie Atte- 

 labus of the vine, or Attelabtts Bacchus, and the Attelabus of the birch, 

 of their predecessors. These two species, considered as one by the 

 vhie-dressers, have received from them in the different dialects and pro- 

 vinces of France, and even in the different districts of the same pro- 

 vince, the names of Becmare, Urbec, Urbere or Urbee, Biableau, Beche, 

 Lisette, Velours vert, Destraux, and perliaps others of which we are 

 ignorant. The Rhynchites Betuleti* is of a brilliant silky green colour, 

 or of an equally brilliant and silky violet blue. The Rhynchites Bac- 

 chus\ is of a golden violet purple or of a golden green mixed with 

 purple. These insects cut the petioles of the leaves to cause them to 

 wither and soften so as to allow of their being rolled with greater faci- 

 lity ; this they effect with great dexterity, leaving a cavity in which 

 they place their eggs, and thus injure greatly the plants to which they 

 attach themselves. The Rhynchites Bacchus^ prefers the leaves of the 

 vine and cherry tree ; the Rhynch. Betuleti those of the vine and the 

 white birch. In tiie environs of Paris I have most frequently found the 

 R. Bacchus upon the vine; but it was the R. Betuleti which committed 

 the extensive ravages among the vines of Burgundy about fifteen years 

 ago. M. Silbermann told me, at Strasburg, that the R. Betuleti is more 

 destructive than any other insect to the vines of Alsace and the banks 

 of tlie Rhine, and that the R.Bcwchus is seldom found there. Accord- 

 ing to the observations of this able entomologist, the R. Betuleti is 



♦ Walckenaer, Faun. Paris., vol. i. p. 235. Jltelahus Betulee. Sclioenlierr, 

 Syiionymia Insect., vol. i. p. 222. I'aiizer, Faun. Infcrf. Germ. xx. No. 6. 



t Sclioenherr, Gen. el Spec. CurcuUonidum, RlnjncL.n s Jiacclius,\o\. i. p. 219. 

 No. 1j. Latreillc, Hist. Nat. ties Ins., vol. ii. p. 85. Jitelabus Bacchus. Pan- 

 zer, Faun. Ins. Germ., fasc. 20. No. 5. Charansoii Cramoisi of GeofT. Attelabe 

 cuirri' of Olivier. 



t Kirby, Introd-'to Entom., vol. i. p. 199. 



