INSECTS INJURIOUS TO THE VINE. 319 



German authors under the name Pillerana, and said by them 

 to live on Stachys Germanice, a plant so different from the vine 

 that the insect was hardly likely to feed on both. 



But more than this, Fabricius has given a description of P. 

 Pillerana, different from that he has given to Vitana. 



M. Duponchel has compared the description given by Bosc 

 of the larva of P. Vitana, with the descriptions of all the cater- 

 pillars of Pyralidca mentioned by writers who have treated of 

 these insects. 



However I maintain, and I remarked to M. Duponchel, that 

 even supposing M. Bosc to be mistaken about the moth, he 

 could not respecting the existence of the caterpillar, nor could 

 he be deceived in the very curious observations he has made on 

 its economy ; that two years ago, when I was on the banks of 

 the Rhine at Baubach, in Nassau, I had noticed a cultivator 

 (he was the innkeeper of the place,) very busy picking the 

 leaves which were rolled up from his vines, and he told me it 

 was to destroy a very injurious insect. I opened several ; they 

 contained little caterpillars ; and I immediately recognised the 

 caterpillar described by Bosc. I expressed my surprise to 

 M. Duponchel, that after so much progress had been made in 

 this department of entomology, by the discoveries therein of 

 many German and French naturalists, a moth should not be 

 known which had been twice figured and described ; and which, 

 since the caterpillar was so abundant, must be common. To 

 this M. Duponchel replied, that he considered I was mistaken 

 in my belief of having recognised the caterpillar described 

 by Bosc, as the description which this naturalist gives in his 

 Memoir is so general, that it would apply to all the caterpillars 

 of this genus which have green bodies and a black head, but 

 which differ in other characters to which Bosc does not allude, 

 such, for example, as the colour of the warty protuberances, a 

 character which all the caterpillars of this group possess. 



Although the silence of the Italian naturalists respecting this 

 caterpillar does not prove that it is not to be found in Italy, 

 and that therefore it could not have received from the ancients 

 the name Involvulus, information may perhaps be obtained on 

 this point by attention to the fact of there being another to 

 which the names Involvulus and Convolvulus would more 

 correctly and particularly apply : it has been more accurately 

 observed than the caterpillar of Bosc, and its moth, Procris 



