910 BARON WALCKENAER ON THE INSECTS 
first two species are the only ones upon which we have continued ob- 
servations; these we proceed to mention. ‘The larva or caterpillar of 
the first of these two species, the P. Danticana*, according to Bose, is 
comprehended with other species in the environs of Paris under the 
collective name of larve or worms which injure the vine ; in Burgundy 
and the vine provinces it is called Ver-coguin, a denomination which is 
also sometimes given to the white worm of the Cockchafer, the Spon- 
dyle of Pliny. This caterpillar of the Pyralis of the vine is, shortly 
after its birth, a centimetre in length ; its head is black and its body 
green, and it has a yellow spot on each side of the neck. Its first ap- 
pearance is about the end of May, but its greatest devastations are made 
in the middle of June. It cuts the petioles of the leaves in halves, which 
causes them to wither, and enables the insect to roll them with greater 
facility. When the leaf first attacked withers, in consequence of the 
wound which it has made in the petiole, it proceeds to attack another ; 
and thus one of these caterpillars will destroy several leaves, weaken 
the vine, and prevent the grapes from becoming large and sweet. This 
insect does not attack the fruit, but destroys the peduncle of the bunch, 
which, if it do not wither, remains small and without flavour. When 
the greater part of the leaves are infested, all the bunches are soon in 
the same condition, because they grow at the bottom of the stem, and 
it is there that this caterpillar commences its ravages. The butterfly or 
Pyralis of this caterpillar is of the size of the nail of the little finger ; 
its wings are of a green fulvous colour, with three oblique bands of 
brown. These Pyralides are most abundant in the month of July. 
During the day they remain clinging upon the stems, under the leaves, 
whence they fly upon the slightest approach of danger. Towards the 
decline of the day, inthedusk, the male seeks the female; but those which 
leave their retreats at an earlier hour become the prey of the swallows 
and other insectivorous birds. 
I have remarked that Bosc identified the butterfly which he described 
under the name of Pyralis Vitis with a new species that Fabricius 
names Pyralis Vitana. This species, as I have said, was described by 
Fabricius at Paris from a specimen in Bosc’s collection; and he adds 
five or six lines of technical description. M. Coquebert, of Reims, 
published at the same time four fasciculi of insects, drawn, engraved 
and coloured from the specimens observed and described by the Danish 
naturalist in the collections of Paris, and among the number is the 
Pyralis Vitana or Pyralis Vitis of Bosc. It would appear that no in- 
sect ought to be better known than the one we are treating of; this 
however is not the fact. After a most attentive examination, Dupon- 
chel finds the descriptions of Fabricius and Bosc too short, and insuffi- 
= Bose, Nouv. Dict. d Hist. Nat., vol. xxxv. p. 392. 
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