182 BARON WALCKENAER ON THE INSECTS 
perfect. insects; that these insects were all of the order Coleoptera, 
vulgarly Beetles; and that Cantharis was a general term denoting 
several species of beetles, but not all the species indifferently. This 
word is always employed by the ancient authors to denote those species 
of Coleoptera, or beetles, which are brilliantly coloured and remarkable 
for their vesicant or venomous properties; but those authors differ 
greatly from each other with regard to the species which they have in 
view. 
Thus the Cantharis of Aristotle appears to be the same species as that 
mentioned by Aristophanes*; but it isan insect very different from that 
with black and yellow bands, which has been so well described by Di- 
oscorides that it is impossible to be mistaken by modern naturalists. 
To this latter insect must be referred the winged Cantharis of a fulvous 
colour, to which on account of its malignity and mortal poison Epipha- 
nius compares heresy +. The Cantharis of Origen}, produced from the 
larva of an insect which lives in the flesh of the ass, is evidently a dif- 
ferent species from that of Epiphanius and Dioscorides, and also from that 
of Aristotle and Aristophanes, though more resembling the latter. 
Pliny mentions several species of Cantharis§, which for want of exact 
details are difficult to recognise ; but when he says (book xviii. chap.44.), 
“ Est et Canthuris dictus Scarabeus parvus frumenta erodens|\,” we in- 
stantly fix upon the small and formidable coleopterous insect to which 
he here gives the name of Cantharis. Theophrastus, who has also men- 
tioned the little insect engendered in corn, gives it the name of Can- 
tharis. 
From what has been said it appears that to find the insect named 
Cantharis considered by the ancients as injurious to the vine, we must 
seek for it among the perfect insects of the class Coleoptera; among 
those which are brilliantly coloured and distinguished by their vesicant 
venomous quality; and among the largest as well as the smallest species 
of that class. 
IX. Kampe and Phtheir.—I class these two words together for an 
instant, regardless of their different signification, because I find them 
united in a passage of the Geoponics, the only place in which the first 
is mentioned in connexion with the vine. The author gives a recipe used 
by the Africans to preserve the vine from the Phtheirs and Kampes 
which infest it. Ctesias also mentions the Phtheirs which destroy the 
vine in Greece**. 
* Aristophanes quoted in Aldrovandus De Jnsect., chap. iii. vol. i. p. 180. 
+ St. Epiphanius, Panar. Rom., p. 1067, A. edit. Petav. 
t Origen, Contra Cels., book iv. chap. 57. p. 549, A. edit. Delarue. 
§ Pliny, Hist. Nat., book xxix. chap. 30; vol. iii. p. 107. edit. Miller. 
i| Pliny, Hist. Nat., chap. 44. or 17. vol. vi. p. 138 of the edition of Franzius. 
{ Geoponica, edit. Niclas, chap. xxx. vol. ili. p. 485. 
#® Ctesias, Indicorum, chap. xx p. 253. edit. Baehr. Frankf. 1824, 8vo. 
