BY WHICH THE VINE IS INFESTED. 211 



cietit for the recognition of the insect and the determination of its spe- 

 cies ; he considers Coquebert's figure of it as too coarsely drawn to 

 throw any light upon the descriptions. This is also the CEise with the 

 descriptions of Bosc, and the figures by whicli his memoirs are accom- 

 panied. The German authors, Frolich, Treitschke, and others, who in 

 latter times have particularly devoted themselves to the study of tlie 

 smaller species of Phalaenge, or Moths, are of the same opinion as Dupon- 

 chel, for not one of them mentions the Pyralis Vitana of Fabricius. 

 This species is not mentioned in their voluminous works specially de- 

 voted to these insects ; or if it be mentioned, it is without their being 

 themselves aware of it. If in the numerous species which they have 

 described they had discovered the Pyralis Vitana they would not have 

 failed to cite Fabricius, whose works are in the hands of every entomo- 

 logist. In this difficulty Duponchel has had recourse to Bosc's collec- 

 tion, which now forms part of the collection at the Museum ; and he 

 has found there, under the name of Vita?ia, a Pyralis which is figured 

 and described by the German authors under the name of Pillerana. 

 Now, according to them, the caterpillar of this Pyralis lives upon the 

 Stachys Germanice, a plant too entirely distinct from the vine to allow 

 of it being easily admitted that it lives indifferently upon the two vege- 

 tables. But besides, Fabricius has also described the Pyralis Pillerana, 

 and the description which he gives of it diffei^s essentially from the 

 Pyralis Vitana ; the latter is marked with three bands, the Pillerana 

 has only two ; the colour of the ground in the Vitana is of a brownish 

 green, that of the Pillerana is of a golden green. From these circum- 

 stances M. Duponchel thinks that Bosc has committed the error of 

 labelling one species for another ; or, which is more probable, that the 

 label of the Pyralis Vitana has been displaced in his collection, which 

 is in great disorder. Duponchel has compared the description given 

 by Bosc of the caterpillar of the Pyralis Vitana with those of all the 

 caterpillars of the Pyralides or Tortrices mentioned in the authors who 

 have treated of this family, and has not found one which appeared to 

 apply to it. I however maintain, and remarked to him, that even if we 

 could suppose that Bosc had been deceived with regard to tlie butterfly 

 proceedingfromthecaterpillar,hewasnot so with regard to the existence 

 of the caterpillar itself, and the curious observations which he had made 

 upon it ; and that being myself, two years ago, at Braubach on the 

 Rhine, in the state of Nassau, I remarked a cultivator (the innkeeper 

 of the place) engaged in pulling off such of the leaves of his vines as 

 were coiled up, and he told me it was to destroy an insect which made 

 great havoc in them. I opened several of these leaves, and found in 

 them a very small caterpillar, which I examined with a lens ; I perceived 

 that it was the caterpillar described by Bosc, and which I had also pre- 

 wusly observed in the environs of Paris. I expressed my surprise to 



