300 NATURAL HISTORY. [CH. xxm, 



similar instances. The young shoots of the vine 

 are gnawed off by the Lethrus cephalotes, which drags 

 them to its burrows, and there feeds upon them. 

 The Hungarians* as Reaumur informs us, wage war 

 with this insect, and destroy a great number. As the 

 bud is on the point of opening, it is attacked by the 

 small caterpillars of the Ino statices ; they eat, as 

 we are told by Pallas, their way into the fruit- buds, 

 and destroy the germe of the future grapes, thus 

 damaging the trees for two or three years. Two 

 coleopterous insects attack the young shoots, the 

 leaves and footstalks of the fruit, so that the latter 

 is prevented from bearing grapes : and other spe- 

 cies also make the young vine its food. Besides 

 these, two small lepidopterous insects feed on this 

 plant ; one makes the leaves its choice, while the 

 other feasts on the delicious fruit itself. Our green- 

 house and hothouse vines are sometimes attacked 

 by a coccus (C. vitis), which is not sufficiently hardy 

 to bear the common temperature of our climate. 

 This pest is easily known by the curious appear- 

 ance which it exhibits on the stem, caused by a 

 filamentous secretion transpiring through the skin 

 of the animals, with which they cover their eggs* 

 When they abound they cause great injury, by ex- 

 tracting the sap from various parts of the plant. 



But although many insects, such as those just 

 mentioned, are destined to destroy various kinds of 

 useful and beneficial things, the Creator has caused 

 others to check their ravages when they become too 

 obnoxious, so that " all things" are " taught to keep 

 within their proper limits. Hence it becomes ne- 

 cessary that some should prey upon others, and a 

 part be sacrificed for the good of the whole." Thus 

 the most splendid of British coleopterous insects, 

 the Calosoma sycophanta, is said to take possession 

 of the nests of moths, which sometimes appear in 

 such masses on the trees, and to feed upon the cat- 

 erpillars contained within them* Another of the 



