210 BARON WALCKENAER ON THE INSECTS 



first two species are the only ones upon which we have continued ob- 

 servations ; these we proceed to mention. The larva or caterpillar of 

 the first of these two species, the P. Danticana*, according to Bosc, is 

 comprehended with other species in the environs of Paris under the 

 collective name of larvce or ivorms ivhich injure the vine ; in Burgundy 

 and the vine provinces it is called Ver-coquin, a denomination which is 

 also sometimes given to the white worm of the Cockchafer, the Spon- 

 dyle of Pliny. This caterpillar of the Pyralis of the vine is, shortly 

 after its birth, a centimetre in length ; its head is black and its body 

 green, and it has a yellow spot on each side of the neck. Its first ap- 

 pearance is about the end of May, but its greatest devastations are made 

 in the middle of June. It cuts the petioles of the leaves in halves, which 

 causes them to wither, and enables the insect to roll them with greater 

 facility. When the leaf first attacked withers, in consequence of the 

 wound which it has made in the petiole, it proceeds to attack another ; 

 and thus one of these caterpillars will destroy several leaves, weaken 

 the vine, and prevent the grapes from becoming large and sweet. This 

 insect does not attack the fruit, but destroys the peduncle of the bunch, 

 which, if it do not wither, remains small and without flavour. When 

 the greater part of the leaves are infested, all the bunches are soon in 

 the same condition, because they grow at the bottom of the stem, and 

 it is there that this caterpillar commences its ravages. The butterfly or 

 Pyralis of this caterpillar is of the size of the nail of the little finger ; 

 its wings are of a green fulvous colour, with three oblique bands of 

 brown. These Pyralides are most abundant in the month of July. 

 During the day they remain clinging upon the stems, under the leaves, 

 whence they fly upon the slightest ajjproach of danger. Towards the 

 decline of the day, in the dusk, the male seeks the female ; but those which 

 leave tlieir retreats at an earlier hour become the prey of the swallows 

 and other insectivorous birds. 



I have remarked that Bosc identified the butterfly which he described 

 under the name of Pyralis Vitis with a new species that Fabricius 

 names Pyralis Vitana. This species, as I have said, was described by 

 Fabricius at Paris from a specimen in Bosc's collection ; and he adds 

 five or six lines of technical description. M. Coquebert, of Reims, 

 published at the same time four fasciculi of insects, drawn, engraved 

 and coloured from the specimens observed and described by the Danish 

 naturalist in the collections of Paris, and among the number is the 

 Pyralis Vitana or Pyralis Vitis of Bosc. It would appear that no in- 

 sect ought to be better known than the one we are treating of; this 

 however is not the fact. After a most attentive examination, Dupon- 

 chel finds the descriptions of Fabricius and Bosc too short, and insuffi- 



* Bosc, Nouv, Diet, d'Hist. Nat., vol. xxxv. p. 392. 



