BY WHICH THE VINE IS INFESTED. 911 
cient for the recognition of the insect and the determination of its spe- 
cies; he considers Coquebert’s figure of it as too coarsely drawn to 
throw any light upon the descriptions. This is also the case with the 
descriptions of Bosc, and the figures by which his memoirs are accom- 
panied. The German authors, Frolich, Treitschke, and others, who in 
latter times have particularly devoted themselves to the study of the 
smaller species of Phalzenz, or Moths, are of the same opinion as Dupon- 
chel, for not one of them mentions the Pyralis Vitana of Fabricius. 
This species is not mentioned in their voluminous works specially de- 
voted to these insects ; or if it be mentioned, it is without their being 
themselves aware of it. If in the numerous species which they have 
described they had discovered the Pyralis Vitana they would not have 
failed to cite Fabricius, whose works are in the hands of every entomo- 
logist. In this difficulty Duponchel has had recourse to Bose’s collec- 
tion, which now forms part of the collection at the Museum; and he 
has found there, under the name of Vitana, a Pyralis which is figured 
and described by the German authors under the name of Pillerana. 
Now, according to them, the caterpillar of this Pyralis lives upon the 
Stachys Germania, a plant too entirely distinct from the vine to allow 
of it being easily admitted that it lives indifferently upon the two vege- 
tables. But besides, Fabricius has also described the Pyralis Pillerana, 
and the description which he gives of it differs essentially from the 
Pyralis Vitana ; the latter is marked with three bands, the Pillerana 
has only two; the colour of the ground in the Vitana is of a brownish 
green, that of the Prllerana is of a golden green. From these circum 
stances M. Duponchel thinks that Bose has committed the error of 
labelling one species for another; or, which is more probable, that the 
label of the Pyralis Vitana has been displaced in his collection, which 
is in great disorder. Duponchel has compared the description given 
by Bose of the caterpillar of the Pyralis Vitana with those of all the 
caterpillars of the Pyralides or Toririces mentioned in the authors who 
have treated of this family, and has not found one which appeared to 
apply to it. I however maintain, and remarked to him, that even if we 
could suppose that Bosc had been deceived with regard to the butterfly 
proceeding from the caterpillar, he wasnot so with regard to the existence 
of the caterpillar itself, and the curious observations which he had made 
_ upon it; and that being myself, two years ago, at Braubach on the 
Rhine, in the state of Nassau, I remarked a cultivator (the innkeeper 
of the place) engaged in pulling off such of the leaves of his vines as 
_ were coiled up, and he told me it was to destroy an insect which made 
great havoc in them. I opened several of these leaves, and found in 
them a very small caterpillar, which I examined with a lens; I perceived 
that it was the caterpillar described by Bose, and which I had also pre- 
_ viously observed in the environs of Paris. I expressed my surprise to 
