BY WHICH THE VINE IS INFESTED. 205 



It appears evident, as has been advanced by Valckenaer, Bochart, and 

 the most learned philologists, that the Iks of certain authors, an insect 

 which infests the vine, is the same word as the Jps employed by other 

 authors as the name of an insect which also infests the vine, and that 

 Ips, Ipes, Iks, Ikes, are only differences of dialect.. This agreed, it is 

 evident from our critical examination, that the conclusion to be formed 

 from the information we receive from the Greek authors, including the 

 grammarians and lexicographers of the lower ages, is, that Ips is em- 

 ployed as the name of an insect which preys upon horn and meat, and 

 also of one which infests the vine, of which it devours the buds, either 

 in the state of larva or as the perfect insect. We learn from this that 

 the name of Ips or Iks M-as applied by the ancients to two or three 

 different species of insects or larvae of insects. But since the ancients 

 confounded these species, and assigned them but one name, there must 

 necessarily be an analogy between them. There is only one species of 

 the larvas of the Coleoptera or Scarabjei possessing frophi, or organs for 

 manducation, sufficiently hard to pierce horn. The Ips of Homer and 

 of St. John Chrysostom belongs therefore to the Coleoptera, conse- 

 quently the Ips of meat and of the vine must also belong to that class. 

 As we are treating of an insect which preys upon horn and meat, 

 naturalists know that it must belong to Linnaeus's tribe of Dermestes, 

 the larvae of which are so formidable to their collections. They are 

 not ignorant that these insects are found in warehouses of furs, in 

 offices, pantries, and all places which receive animal matters, and that 

 they spare neither horn nor feathers ; but our knowledge of them is 

 not sufficient to determine to what genus of modern entomologists 

 those Dermestes belong which prey upon old goat's horn, particu- 

 larly upon that of the iEgagrus, of which the bow of Ulysses was 

 formed, and which is particularly mentioned by Homer. We are well 

 acquainted only with the metamoqihoses of the Dermestes lardarius, 

 and the Dermestes Pellio, the Dermestes of bacon and furs. These in- 

 sects belong to the numerous family of the Nitidularice of Latreille*. 

 Degeerf long ago separated from the Dermestes a genus to which he 

 judiciously gave the name of Ips ; but this name has been since given 

 to genera verj^ different to that which he had created, though they also 

 were fonned from the numerous family of the Dermestes. It might 

 possibly be the same larva which infested horn and meat, as is asserted 

 by the grammarian published by Boissonade ; it is also possible that the 

 ancients confounded the larvae of two affinal but different genera. But 



• Latreille, in Cuvier's Tah. du Regne Animal, vol. iv. p. 503. Schcenlierr, 

 Synonymia Insect., vol. i. part ii. p. 236. No. 25. Walckenaer, Faun. Paris., 

 vol. i. p. 124. No. 2. Panzer, Faun. Insect. Germ. Ixxxix. 12. Fabr., Sysl. 

 Eleulh; vol. i. p. 422. 



f Degecr, Mem. pour servir a I' Hist, des Ins., vol. v. p. 190. 



