INSECTS INJURIOUS TO THE VINE. 313 



Beche, Lisette and Tete-cacke, because its head is concealed by 

 the prothorax. It feeds on the buds and young shoots of the 

 vine, which it cuts in two, and thus destroys ; it also eats 

 the grapes. 



The great injury which this insect does to the vine is 

 another reason for our considering it the Ips of the ancients. 

 We readily conceive, as Strabo observes, that the pretended 

 destruction of this scourge by Hercules should, in a country 

 where the vine is much cultivated, have caused the memory of 

 that hero to be held in greater veneration than his victory over 

 the Nemean lion. The larva of the Eumolpus of the vine is 

 the one which the ancients alluded to when they spoke of the 

 Ips or the Iks as a grub which appears in the Spring : this 

 larva is of an oval form ; it has six legs ; its head is scaly, and 

 armed with two small jaws. p 



The same insect which the Greeks called Ips or Iks, was 

 named Volucra and Volvox by the Romans, but with this diffe- 

 rence, that the words Ips and Iks, designated the larva of the 

 insect, and the words Volucra and Volvox, the perfect insect ; 

 this is shown by the word animal, and not worm, being used by 

 Pliny and Columella in speaking of the Volucra and Volvox, 

 whilst the Ips of the Greeks is always designated as a worm. 

 The name Volucra was probably given to this larva on account 

 of the celerity with which it escapes from the hand that attempts 

 to take it; it drops on the ground directly the leaf in which it 

 is enveloped is touched ; and the name Volvox was doubtless 

 given, from the habit the insect has of wrapping itself up in 

 leaves. Forcellini gives in his Italian dictionary for the word 

 Volucra, the word Ritorelli. This vulgar appellation of the 

 vine insect in Italy is evidently derived from the same origin as 

 Volvox. Almost all the insects of the genus Dermestes coun- 

 terfeit death on being touched ; and this similarity of habit has 

 occasioned the ancie,nts to confound the Ips which eats horn, 

 and the Ips which devours the vine, together. 



But there are still stronger reasons than these to prove that 

 the Volucra or Volvox of the Romans is the same insect as the 

 Ips or Iks of the Greeks. 



p Latreille, Nouv. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. t. x. p. 358. He quotes Olivier, No. 96, 

 pi. 1, fig. 1 ; but Olivier's figure certainly does not represent the insect which 

 infests the vine : it is Eumolphus Ignitus, a Brazilian species, totally different 

 from the one in question. 



