500 
0 
LEPIDOPTERA. 
France,” refers this insect to the genus Butalis^ which name 
I have thought proper now to adopt. 
For more than a century, this insect has prevailed in 
the western parts of France, and has gradually been ex¬ 
tending in an easterly and northerly direction. In the year 
1736, the French naturalist Reaumur published an interest¬ 
ing account of it, illustrated by rude figures, in the second 
volume of his instructive “ Memoires.” He found it to be 
very injurious to stored barley, at Lucon, in the province 
of La Vendee, and ascertained that it destroved wheat also. 
In the adjacent province of Angoumois, it continued to 
increase for many years, till at length the attention of gov¬ 
ernment was directed to its fearful depredations. This was 
in 1760, when the insect was found to swarm in all the 
wheat-fields and granaries of Angoumois and of the neigh¬ 
boring provinces, and the afflicted inhabitants were thereby 
deprived not only of their principal staple, wherewith they 
were wont to pay their annual rents, their taxes, and their 
tithes, but were threatened with famine and pestilence from 
the want of wholesome bread. Two members of the Acad¬ 
emy of Sciences of Paris, the celebrated Duhamel du Mon- 
ceau and ^I. Tillet, were then commissioned to visit the 
province of Angoumois, and inquire into the nature of this 
destinictive insect. The result of their inquiries was com¬ 
municated to the Academy, in whose history and memoirs 
it may be found, and was also subsequently republished 
in a separate yolume.* From this work, and from the 
“ Memoires ” of ’Reaumur, the following particulars are de¬ 
rived. 
The Angoumois grain-insect, in its perfected state, is a 
little moth, of a pale cinnamon-brown color above, having 
the lustre of satin, with narrow broadlv fringed hind wings 
of an ashen or leaden color, two thread-like antennae, con- 
• “ Histoire d’un Insecte qui d^vore les Grains de TAngoumois,” 12mo, Paris, 
1762. See also “ Histoire de I’Acad^mie Royale des Sciences,” Annee 1761, p. 66, 
and “ Mcmoires,” p. 289, 4to, Paris, 1763. 
