204? INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 



caterpillar of a moth which eats into its interior is the 

 cause of this disappointment a . Of fruits the date has 

 the hardest nucleus ; yet an insect of the same tribe with 

 the above, that feeds upon its kernel, is armed with jaws 

 sufficiently strong to perforate it, that it may make its 

 escape when the time of its change is arrived, and as- 

 sume the pupa between the stone and the flesh. The 

 date is eaten also by a beetle which Hasselquist calls a 

 Dermestes b . 



One of the most delicious, and at the same time most 

 useful, of all our fruits is the grape : to this, as you know, 

 we are indebted for our raisins, for our currants, for our 

 wine, and for our brandy ; you cannot therefore but feel 

 interested in its history, and desire to be informed, whe- 

 ther, like those before enumerated, this choice gift of 

 Heaven, whose produce " cheereth God and man c ," 

 must also be the prey of insects. There is a singular 

 beetle, common in Hungary, (Lethrus cephalotes) which 

 gnaws off the young shoots of the vine, and drags them 

 backward into its burrow, where it feeds upon them : 

 on this account the country people wage continual war 

 with it, destroying vast numbers d . Three other beetles 

 also attack this noble plant : two of them, mentioned by 

 French authors, (Rynchites Bacchus and Eumolpus 

 Vitis,) devour the young shoots, the foliage and the 

 footstalks of the fruit, so that the latter is prevented 

 from coming to maturity e ; and a third ( C. Corruptor, 

 Host,) by a German, which seems closely allied to 



a Reaum. ii. 505. 



b Ibid. ii. 507. and Hasselquist's Travels in the Levant, 428. 



c That is " High and Low," Judges ix. 13. 



d Sturm Deutschlnnds Fauna, i. 5. 



e Latreille, Hist. Nat. xi. 66. 331. 



