LEPIDOPTERA. 2/5 



giving a drawing, after Reaumur, of the pretty arrangement of the 

 leaves of a species of willow (Figs. 285, 286). In the figures we see 

 the parcel bound together by the caterpillar. In that to the right we 

 see the transverse section of the packet of leaves magnified. At the 

 two edges are seen the threads which keep the leaves together, and 

 the cavity occupied by the caterpillar. 



The Vine Pyralis is produced from a leaf-rolling caterpillar, which 

 deserves our attention on account of the ravages which it has for some 

 time committed, and which it still commits in vineyards. It was at 

 the end of the sixteenth century that this pyralis first showed itself in 

 the environs of Paris, in the territory of Argenteuil. " The inhabi- 

 tants of this commune," writes the Abbe I.eboeuf, " looked on the 

 insects which spoiled their vines in the spring of 1562 as a visitation 

 of God. The Bishop of Paris gave orders that they should offer up 

 public prayers for the diminution of these insects, and that they should 

 join to their prayers, exorcisms, without leaving the church." Prayers, 

 processions, exorcisms, were again had recourse to in 1629, in 17 17, 

 and in 1733, to stop the ravages of this insect among the vines of 

 Colombes, in the territory of Ai. 



The country of the Maconnais and the Beaujolais became in 

 their turn the theatre of the ravages of the pyralis. These ravages 

 very soon increased and spread. In 1836, 1837, 1838, this plague 

 raged in the departments of the Saone-et-Loire, of the Rhone, of the 

 Cote-d'Or, of the Marne, of the Seine-et-Oise, of the Charente- 

 Inferieure, of the Haute-Garonne, of the Pyrenees-Orientales, and of 

 the Herault. 



To give an idea of the losses which may be occasioned by the 

 pyrahs, in a period of ten years (1828-1837), twenty-three communes 

 comprised in the two departments of the Saone-et-Loire and- of the 

 Rhone lost 75,000 hectolitres of wine a year, which may be valued 

 at 1,500,000 francs. If we were to calculate the supply of articles 

 of all sorts which this great number of casks of wine would have 

 necessitated, the imposts on their transport, the duty, the taxes 

 i levied on their sale, the carriage by land and water, which would 

 have brought receipts into the treasury, and lastly the diminution 

 of taxes which had to be granted for seven years to the vine pro- 

 prietors in the department of the Saone-et-Loire, and in 1837 in 

 the department of the Rhone, and which amounted to a total of 

 more than 100,000 francs, we shall find that the ravages of the pyralis 

 caused in these two departments an annual loss of 3,408,000 francs, 

 and as the visitation lasted ten years, we get the enormous total 

 Df 34,000,000 francs lost by the ravages of one species of insect. 





