BY WHICH THE VINE IS INFESTED. 207 



Dermestes counterfeit death when they are touched, and this conformity 

 of habit must have contributed to the error of the ancient authors in 

 confounding togetlier the Ips which preys upon horn and that which 

 infests the vine. Butthere are still stronger reasons which prove that the 

 Volucra or Volvox of the Latins is the same insect as the Jjjs or Iks of 

 the Greeks. Pliny and Columella inform us that the Volucra or Vol- 

 vox was a different insect from the Convolvulus. This difference be- 

 tween two insects which both infested the vine must necessarily have 

 been complete and radical, since it was remarked by the ancients, who 

 possessed so little information upon this class of animals. We shall 

 show presently that the Convolvulus was one of the Lepidoptera or 

 Butterflies ; the Volucra or Volvox must belong to a totally different 

 class. Now among insects there are only the larvae and the insects 

 of the Coleoptera, and the caterpillars or larvae of the Lepidoptera, 

 which are very injurious to the vine ; the Volucra or Volvox must there- 

 fore belong to the class Coleoptera. Besides, we learn from Pliny and 

 Columella that the Volucra or Volvox infested both the young shoots and 

 the grapes. Pliny says, " Volvocem mmnal prcerodens jnibescentes uvas" 

 and Columella, " Genus animalis Volucra prcerodit teneras adhuc pam- 

 pinas el uvas." These expressions apply solely and entirely to the 

 Eumolpus of the vine and the Ips of the Greeks, and not to the Can- 

 tharides of the Geoponics, the Hhynchites Bacchus or Betuleti, which 

 injures the vine by rolling up the leaves and causing them to wither, 

 but which does not attack the fruit. Neither can they be apjjlied, as 

 we shall shortly see, to the various species of the caterpillars or lanae 

 of the Lepidoptera which attack the vine. 



It is therefore proved that the fys or Iks of the Greeks is the Volu- 

 cra or Volvox of the Latins, and the Eumolpus of the vine the Eumol- 

 pus Vitis of modern entomologists. 



VIIL Involvulus. — Convolvulus. — Pyralis of Bosc d' Antic Ver- 



coquin. — Procris Vitis, or Procris ampelophaga. — Vine-moth. — Grape- 

 moth. — Tortrix Heperana. — Cochylis Roserana. — From the recipes given 

 by Pliny and Cato to prevent the multiplication of the Convolvulus, 

 we learn that it was an insect eminently destructive of the vine ; but 

 as they neither give any description of it nor furnish us with any par- 

 ticulars respecting it, excepting that it was a different species from the 

 Volucra or Volvox, we have no means of ascertaining wliether this name 

 applies to the same insect as is denoted by the name Involvulus em- 

 ployed by Plautus in the passage whicli has been quoted. In this un- 

 certainty, the similarity of the roots and the conformity of the onoma- 

 topa'ia, indicative of similar habits and industry, will not allow us to 

 separate these two words, and induce us to presume that they were em- 

 ployed to designate the same object, or rather that tliey are one name, 

 to which are adjoined two different particles, which do not alter its sig- 



