322 BARON WALCKENAER ON THE 



did not confound them with worms, and were aware of their 

 undergoing metamorphosis. 



10. Phteiras. — Tholea or Tholaath. — Coccus Vitis. — Kermes of 

 the Vine. — Coccus Adonidum. — Coccus of the Hothouse. 



The Phteiras, or Lice of the Vine, mentioned by Ctesias 

 as insects which cause the vine to die, and which the Geo- 

 ponicks include with caterpillars amongst the greatest enemies 

 of this plant, cannot, we consider, correspond with the Coccus 

 Vitis, or Kermes of the Vine. f 



We know that the Coccus or Gallinsectw are, with the Aphides 

 or Pucerons, the insects which, on account of their diminutive 

 size, or powers of rapid increase, most resemble the louse ; 

 and also from the circumstance of their females being without 

 wings. The Cocci sometimes collect on, and cover the bark 

 of trees, in such a way as to give it a scurfy appearance. 

 When the females of these insects have laid their eggs, their 

 body dries up, and becomes a solid crust, which covers the 

 eggs, and which has no small resemblance to an immense nit. 



These insects injure the vine by piercing the wood with 

 their long rostrum, which is of a sheath-like form. It is with 

 this instrument that they suck the sap and cause it to flow. 



Our cultivators are but little annoyed by these insects, and 

 do not appear to be much acquainted with them, because the 

 yearly pruning which they give the vines is unfavourable to 

 their increase, as the Coccus can only feed on the young wood 

 whilst the bark is tender. They are at times, however, very 

 abundant on those vines which are left to themselves ; and in 

 the countries where the vine is only cultivated in hothouses 

 they multiply to a great extent, whilst the other insect pests of 

 the vine are unknown. 8 But in the hothouse the Coccus that 

 attacks the vine is a different species to the one which is 

 injurious to it out of doors. The Coccus of the hothouse vine 

 is C. Adonidum h and not C. Vitis; if this insect originally 



f Ctesias, Indicorum, cap. 21, p. 253, edit. Boeher. Francofurti, 1824, in 8vo. 

 Ctesias speaks of a red insect which in InJia destroys the Amber-bearing trees 

 in the same manner that the Phteiras destroys the Vine. Larcher in his trans- 

 lation of Herodotus has not rendered this passage correctly. 



* Major, a Treatise on the Insects most prevalent on fruit trees and garden pro- 

 duce, 1829. in 8vo. p. 112. 



h Coccus Adonidum, Fabr. Syst. rhyngstor. p. 307, No. 4 ; J. Major, a Treatise 



