INSECTS INJURIOUS TO THE VINE- 311 



7 . Ips. — Iks. — Volucra. — Volvox. — Eumolpus vitis. — Eumolpus 

 of the Vine. — Coupe Bourgeons. — Tete-cache. — Beche. — 

 Lisette. — Gribouris de la Vigne. 



Aldrovandus, after having treated of the Cantharides, de- 

 votes a whole chapter to the Ips of the Greeks, his object in 

 so doing being to support what he had advanced in the fore- 

 going chapter, viz. that this insect is the Tagliadezzo of the 

 Italian cultivators; but he remarks, that he has never found it 

 upon the vine, although the ancients have said that it eats 

 horn and the vine. Although Aldrovandus was mistaken in 

 asserting that the Ips of the Greeks was the same insect as the 

 Convolvulus of Roman authors, he was right in considering Ips 

 to be a Coleopterous insect, and one of those which the Italian 

 agriculturists included amongst the Tagliadezzi, or cutters. 



We think, and are supported in this opinion by the autho- 

 rity of Vackenaer, Bochart, and other learned philologists, 

 that the Iks of certain authors which is injurious to the vine is 

 the same word as the Ips employed by other writers, to desig- 

 nate also an insect which eats the vine ; and that between Ips 

 Ipes, and Iks Ikes, there is only a difference of dialect. 



This being the case, the critical examination we have just 

 made warrants us in concluding, (from the consideration of 

 passages in the writings of Grecian authors, including the 

 grammarians and lexicographers of the lower ages,) that the 

 word Ips is alike employed to designate an insect which eats 

 horn and meat, and an insect which is injurious to the vine, 

 eating the buds either in the state of larva, or after it has come 

 to the perfect state. From these indications we learn, that the 

 words Ips or Iks have been applied by ancients to two or three 

 species of insects, or to the larvae of different insects. 



There must certainly be some analogy between these species, 

 or the ancients could not have confounded them, and desig- 

 nated them by the same name. Now there is only one genus 

 of Coleoptera the larva of which has trophi or organs of man- 

 ducation sufficiently strong to pierce horn. The Ips of Homer 

 and of St. Chrysostom is therefore a Coleopterous insect; and, 

 consequently, the Ips of meat and the Ips of the vine must also 

 belong to the class Coleoptera. 



As the insect in question eats horn and meat, naturalists will 

 be aware that it belongs to the large tribe Dermestes, of 



