216 PARON WALCKENAER ON THE INSE€TS 
lead us to any probable conjecture upon the subject of the Thola or 
Tholea, if this word, which in the Bible is employed separately, were not 
elsewhere frequently found in conjunction with the word Dibaphi* to 
‘denote the insect that the Arabs term Kermes, and which, when heated 
with vinegar, produces a fine red colour, in a word, the Cochineal in- 
_sect. The species of cochineal which produces this colour in Europe 
are the Coccus Ilicis, which attaches itself to the green oak +, and which 
consequently may be the insect mentioned in the Bible as the destroyer 
of a tree giving shade; and the Coceus Polonicus, which adheres to 
the roots of the annual Scleranthus and other plants{. The Coccus of 
the vine does not produce this colour, but the resemblance of these in- 
sects, and their generic affinities, must have caused them to be con- 
founded with the other Coccus, or the Tholaath Dibaphi, or at least 
comprehended under the same denomination. Thus we say, and with 
much less propriety, the worm of the apple and the nut, though these 
are the larvz of insects of very dissimilar genera. The word Thola or 
Tholaath in the Bible was employed for vermin, louse, a small, insig- 
nificant, vile, and contemptible insect, as the Phtheir ; but the epithet 
Dibaphi, designating the Kermes or insect useful in dyeing, which was 
sometimes added to the word Thola or Tholaath, indicated sufficiently, 
by the similarity of the species, the nature of the insect or vermin in- 
tended by the word, and which was productive of so great injury to 
the vine and certain trees. 
XI. Means which are to be employed to destroy the Insects which infest 
the. Vine—The recipes of Pliny and Columella for the protection of 
the vine from the insects which attack it appear to prove that the Cocci 
committed greater ravages upon the vines in ancient than in modern 
times. Their directions were to rub the stems and branches of this plant 
with greasy substances, such as oil or bear's fat, to which was also added 
the use of vesicating substances. Modern cultivators, as I have said, 
protect the vine from the Coccus by pruning it. But other methods 
must be employed for the destruction of the Weevils (Becmares) and 
Coupe-bourgeons, the Rhynchites Bacchus and Rhynch. Betuleti, and 
the Eumolpus Vitis. The best of all is to choose the moment when 
these insects have undergone metamorphosis and begin to copulate, and 
to place under each vine a kind of basin made for the purpose in the 
form of a deeply recurved crescent, so as to surround the stem or branch 
* Bochart, Hierozoicon, p. 22. 
+ Coccus Hlicis, Fabr. Syst. Rhyngotor., p. 308. Réaumur, Jnsect., iv. tab. 5: 
Garidel, Plantes des Environs d’ diz, p. 250. pl. 35. Boyer de Fonscolombe, 
me de la Société Entom., vol. iii. p. 210. 
t Coccus Polonicus, Fabr. Syst. Rhyngotor., p. 310, No. 26. '-Frisch., Insect. 
56. -Walckenaer, Faun. Paris., vol. ii. p. 363. 
J 
