INS ETS INJURIOUS TO THE VINE. 303 



The Julos of the ancients was probably the Julus terrestris 

 and J. sabulosus of modern naturalists, and not the common 

 centipede of M. Soavi. 



These insects are found on the ground under stones ; they 

 eat the leaves and fruits which fall on the ground and decay 

 there ; but are not injurious to the vine or any living plant. 

 As they are met with under the shade of the vine, as also in 

 other shady and moist places, it has happened that injuries 

 have been attributed to them which were owing to some other 

 cause. 



4. Biurus. — Gryllo-talpa. — The Mole-cricket. 



Biurus, the next word for our consideration, has not much 

 more to do with our subject than the words Spondylus and Joulos. 

 It only occurs in a passage of Cicero quoted by Pliny, in which 

 it is said that this animal eats the vines in Campania. Thus 

 the Biurus is not alluded to as generally injurious to the vine, 

 but only to the vines of Campania in particular, and there by 

 reason of its great abundance. It seems probable, however, 

 that this passage of Cicero, which Pliny only quotes incidentally, 

 refers to a peculiar case ; and that these Biuri, which were so 

 noxious to the young plantations of vines in Campania, would 

 not have been capable of injuring the roots of the vines when 

 they had attained greater strength and hardness. 



However that may be, the etymology of Bi-uros, which, as 

 we have already remarked, implies an insect with two tails, leads 

 us to refer the animal to which it was applied to the locust 

 or the mole-cricket, the only insects to which this description 

 is applicable; for, from their size and the injuries they occasion, 

 these, and these only, are likely to be mentioned as ravaging 

 a whole country planted with the vine. 



But as the locust was well known to the Romans under the 

 name of Locusta, and to the Greeks by that of Acris, 1 it would 

 appear that the word Biurus could only be used for the mole- 

 cricket; and this synonymy seems the more likely to be the right 

 one, on account of its being the largest European insect (it is not 

 less than H inch in length), and from its singular shape and 

 destructive habits ; and that it is not recognised in any de- 



1 Vulgate, and Septuagint Bible. Aldrovandus de Insectis, p. 160. 



