204 BARON WALCKENAER ON THE INSECTS 



seen in that countiy as a perfect insect upon the leaves of the vine 

 towards the end of August. The larva rolls the leaf to hide itself, and 

 attacks the young grape, but not the huds, being hatched too late. 

 Schranck, in his Fauna Boica*, has placed these two insects in a par- 

 ticular genus, to which lie gives the name of Involviilus; but the Itivol- 

 vulits of the ancients, as we shall presently show, does not belong to 

 the class Coleoptera, but to the Lepidoptera ; and I may remark that 

 the genus Involvulus of Schranck, being badly constituted, has not been 

 adopted by any naturalist. Though it contains but few species, some 

 of them are distributed by M. Schcenherr among his Apoderi, one 

 among his Attelabi, and a third among his Ehi/nchites. Aldrovandus 

 was well acquainted a\ ith the Rhynchites Bacchus ; and I am surprised 

 that no naturalist has quoted this venerable father of natural history 

 in modem Europe upon the subject of this small but formidable insect. 

 He places it among the Cantharides, to which he devotes a chapter, 

 thus separating them from the true Scarabsei which occupy another 

 chapter. The following is the description which he gives of this Cur- 

 culio : "JVomts numerus sigtiijicat Convolvulum, lira Greeds, Tagliadizzo 

 vulgo ajnid Italos agricolas,corpore carvleo,p€dibus obscure lutescentibus, 

 in vite repertum, ac folia ejus depopulantem. Nascitur ex oris boni- 

 hieum oris similibus magnittidine, colore rubicundis. Hie cum parere 

 vult multa cumulat convolvitque folia {unde forte a Latinis id nominis 

 datum), atque in his sua ova reponit." Thus the name of Tagliadizzo, — 

 cutter, — given to it by the vine-dressere of Italy ; its bluish colours ; the 

 injury done to the leaves of the vine, which the insect rolls up and in 

 which it deposits its eggs, all mark with certainty the synonymy of our 

 Rhynchites Betuleti or R. Bacchus with the ninth Cantharis of Aldro- 

 vandusf. But as to the identity of this insect with the Ips of the 

 Greeks, and the Convolvtdus of the Latin authors, which Aldi-ovandus 

 attempts to establish, the continuation of our researches will prove that 

 it must be rejected. 



VII. Ips. — Iks. — Volucra. — Volvox. — Eumolpus Vitis. — Eumolpus 

 of the Vine. — Coupe-bourgeons. — Tete-cache. — Beche. — Lisette. — Gri- 

 houris de la Vigne. — After having treated of the Cantharides, Aldrovan- 

 dus devotes an entire chapter to the Ips of the Greeks, to confirm his 

 assertion in the preceding chapter that this insect is the Tagliadizzo of 

 the cultivators of Italy ; but he remarks that he had only found this 

 insect upon the vine, though the ancient authors say that it preys also 

 upon horn. If Aldrovandus was wrong in maintaining that the Ips 

 of the Greeks was the Convolvulus of the Latins, he was right in 

 thinking that it belonged to the Coleoptera, and was one of those which 

 the Italian agriculturists class among the Tagliadizzi, or cutters. 



• Schranck, Fauna Boica, vol. i. p. 474. No. 498. 



t Aldrovandus, De Anim. Insect., chap. iv. 1638, folio, p. 472. 



