178 BARON WALCKENAER ON THE INSECTS 
names? Or is it a distinction erroneously established by grammarians 
and lexicographers, who of one word slightly varied have made two 
different words? Whatever may be the fact, the consideration of it is 
foreign to our present purpose, and will engage our attention at another 
opportunity. We confine ourselves at present to collecting the facts of 
the language as we derive them from the critical examination of the texts, 
without anticipating the consequences which may be deduced from them. 
From what has been said we draw the following conclusions : 
lst, That in the most learned ancient authors, and in those who have 
treated ex professo of agriculture, natural history and geography, the 
word Jps has never been employed except to denote the larva of an in- 
sect very injurious to the vine. 
2nd, That in Homer, St. John Chrysostom, and lexicographers and 
grammarians of the period of the decline of literature, the word Jps is 
exclusively employed to denote the larva of an insect preying upon 
horn. . 
3rd, That the word Jks, whether it be considered as a different word 
from Ips, or the same in another dialect, is employed by Aleman, and 
the lexicographers and grammarians of the lower ages, to designate ex- 
clusively a variegated insect, which injures the vine, and preys upon its 
buds. Ys 
VII. Spondyle or Sphondyle.—Aristotle in his Natural History of 
Animals*, after describing the mode of coition of flies and beetles, adds 
that the Spondyle (or Sphondyle), the Phalangium, and other insects 
agree with them in this respect. 
I say Spondyle or Sphondyle, because the editors and translators of 
Aristotle’s work are divided upon this point. In the Greek text of 
Schneider the word is Sphondylai, in that of Camus Sphondylai: they 
each represent that it is an insect, because in this passage the meaning 
is evident; but in another passage of the same work +, speaking of the 
diseases of the horse, Aristotle mentions cases in which that animal 
draws up the hip and drags the foot, and says, “ the same thing occurs 
if he devours the Staphylinus. The Staphylinus is of the same size and 
appearance as the Sphondyle.” 
M. Camus, in his translation, writes Sphondyle, and agrees with 
‘Hesychius, who represents the Staphylinus, and consequently the Spon- 
dyle, as an animal. M. Schneider, on the contrary, who this time also 
writes Sphondyle, considers this word to be entirely different from Spon- 
dyle, the name of an animal in the first passage which I have quoted. 
M. Schneider, adopting the opinion of Scaliger, regards the Staphylinus, 
* Aristot., Hist. Anim., book v. chap. 7, edit. Schneider, vol. ii. p. 181 of the 
translation; and vol. i. p. 190 of the Greek; and book v. chap. 8. vol. i. p. 219 
of the translation of Le Camus. 4 
{ Aristot., book viii. chap. 24, Schneider, vol. ili. p. 276. 
