170. BARON WALCKENAER ON THE INSECTS 
dressing to me, respecting the interpretation of the name of an insect 
infesting the vine mentioned by Plautus. The text of this author in 
the passage alluded to is so explicit that I ventured immediately to 
give the solution required. To assure myself that I was not mistakew 
I commenced an examination of what ancient and modern authors had 
written on the species of insects infesting the vine, and the means of 
destroying them; but in explaining and arranging the ancient texts, and 
in afterwards applying them to the observations of the moderns, I found 
more difficulties than I expected; I however exerted all my efforts to 
surmount them. Such was the origin of this Memoir. The subject will 
doubtless appear minute, but as learning, natural history, and agriculture 
are equally interested in it, I think it cannot be considered either futile 
or unworthy of attention. 
- This Memoir will be divided into three sections. The first, which 
will be in some degree preparatory, will contain acritical examination of 
the ancient texts relative to the signification of the names of insects 
designated in them as being particularly injurious to the vine. 
: in the second section, by means of results. obtained in the first, I shall 
determine which are the species of insects known to the ancients and 
moderns as being those injurious to the vine: I shall then indicate the 
means of preventing their ravages. 
In the third section this dissertation will be terminated by a concord- 
ance of names, that is to say, a synonymy of all the species of insects 
mentioned in these researches, arranged in classes, which will render its 
application to use easy to those naturalists and agriculturists who may 
think proper to have recourse to it. 
First Section. 
Critical examination of the ancient texts with respect to the signification 
of the names of insects which are therein mentioned as being parti- 
cularly injurious to the vine. 
I. Preliminaries.—This section is, as I have already said, only pre- 
paratory to the principal object of the Memoir. 
No application of modern names to interpret the ancient texts will 
here be made; but we shall content ourselves with investigating the sig- 
nification of the ancient words, by means of the use to which the an- 
cients themselves have applied them. In the second section the cireum- 
stances or the particulars of this use will enable us to interpret the an- 
cient names, that is to say, to ascertain the names corresponding to them 
in the language of naturalists, the only names applicable to the defini- 
tions and descriptions proper to determine with precision the objects 
named. . The vulgar names will be only a secondary consideration. . 
For objects, the differences of which escape superficial observation, the 
