Charles Athanase Walckenaer

“ We know that in modern Greece the children at the present day attach a thread to the foot of the beautiful gold-coloured insect which naturalists call the Cetonia fastuosa, which is not scarce in that country, where the children amuse themselves with it in the same manner as those of our climates do with the common Cockchafer; the name of Melolontha should therefore have been applied to the genus Cetonia, not to the genus Chafer. ”

“ Now, as no Coleopterous insect, or Scarabæus, has vesicating properties, as no Mylabns, Lytta, Meloë, or Cantharis lives upon the vine, it is evident that the insect of which we are in search must be found among those which from their colour may be confounded or compared with them, especially with the yellow-banded Mylabris of the endive and the brilliant green Cantharis of apothecaries, for we know that these species were employed by the ancients in medicine and agriculture. ”

“ For objects, the differences of which escape superficial observation, the ancient as well as the modern languages furnish only general denominations, common to several objects or species, and are consequently extremely vague, a single word being employed to designate beings of very different natures. Scholars, grammarians, and lexicographers frequently add error to the confusion by their false distinctions, and sometimes the prodigious erudition of modern commentators increases the difficulty still more. ”

“ Aristotle has well observed that the Spiders, Grasshoppers, and Crickets are not produced from worms, but from animals similar to themselves. These ideas upon the metamorphosis of insects are very exact, and though Aristotle blends with them a few errors, which it is unnecessary to consider here, they afford proof of the perseverance with which he pursued his observations, and the surprising skill which he possessed for generalizing acquired facts, and for discovering and predicting those not previously observed. ”

“ But certainly the insect designated by the ancients as preying on horn and meat cannot be the same as that whose worm or larva feeds upon the young shoots of the vine. However, to render the same name applicable to them both, they must have belonged to the class Coleoptera, the larvæ of which could not be confounded with caterpillars, or the larvæ of Lepidoptera; the perfect insect which destroys the shoots of the vine must also resemble the Dermestes in form and dimensions. ”

“ The insect named Ips or Iks by the Greeks, was called Volucra or Volvox by the Latins; but with this difference, that the word Ips and Iks were applied to the larva of this insect, while Volucra and Volvox were the names of the perfect insect. This is proved by the use of the word animal, and not vermis, which Pliny and Columella employ when speaking of the Volucra or Volvox; while the Ips is always spoken of as a worm by the Greeks. ”

“ 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 insect ought to be better known than the one we are treating of; this however is not the fact. After a most attentive examination, Duponchel finds the descriptions of Fabricius and Bosc too short, and insufficient for the recognition of the insect and the determination of its species ”

“ From a comparison of their texts, it appears that the Joulos is an apterous or wingless insect, possessing a great number of feet; that it has the lengthened form of a worm; moves in a serpentine manner; coils itself up when touched; and is found in moist places. Modern naturalists cannot have been mistaken with regard to this insect, for which they have retained the ancient name. The name of Julus, given to a genus of insects by the moderns, corresponds exactly to the Julus or Joulos of the ancients ”

“ Speaking of animals in general, Aristotle distinguishes those which have only four feet from those with a larger number [46] , and among the latter he names the Scolopendra and the Bee. It is evident that Aristotle names these two examples as being the extreme limits of the class; one animal having but six feet, only two more than the animals of his first division, or quadrupeds, and the other having a much larger number: one of Aristotle's commentators however, forming his judgement in a similar manner to the lexicographers, makes a Wasp of the Scolopendra. An insect without wings a Wasp! ”

“ Fabricius, who has detached the Chafers from the genus Scarabæus of Linnæus, has given to this genus the name of Melolontha, which the Swedish naturalist had assigned as the specific name of the most common species. This name is borrowed from Aristotle, who employs it in the same manner as those of Cantharis and Carabus, to denote various species of Scarabæi, which in our natural systems belong to very different families or to very dissimilar genera. ”

“ The word Thola or Tholaath in the Bible was employed for vermin, louse, a small, insignificant, 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 intended by the word, and which was productive of so great injury to the vine and certain trees. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The Juli which the ancients had in view were probably the terrestrial Julus and the Julus sabulosus of modern entomologists, and the common Julus of M. Soavi, erroneously confounded with the former two. These insects are found on the earth under stones; they feed upon the leaves and fruits which fall upon the ground and are there decomposed; but they neither injure the vine nor any other plant. As they are found under the shadow of the vine, as well as in all other dark and humid places, the injuries arising from another cause have been attributed to them. ”

“ Notwithstanding the imperfection of the science of entomology, the most difficult branch of natural history, the moderns have made such progress in it that they have nothing to learn from the ancients upon this subject ”

“ In fact we cannot possibly suppose that the ancients made observations sufficiently exact to distinguish differences which the moderns themselves, notwithstanding the extended inquiries lately made upon the subject, have great difficulty in proving.
The first of these species is that which was observed by Bosc, and which he names Pyralis Vitis; Fabricius has described this insect under the name of Pyralis Vitanu, from the specimen in Bosc's collection. ”

“ This insect was spotted with white; and the mode of employing it was to divide it into two portions, one of which was affixed to each arm, while the two other species of insects of which we have treated were attached only to the left arm. "Tertium, qui vocatur Fullo, albis guttis, dissectum utrique lacerto adligant, cætera sinistro." All Pliny's commentators are silent upon this remarkable passage, and upon the insect named Fullo by the Romans; but naturalists have not been equally careless. ”

“ It is this, that with the exception of the Latin translation of the Bible—the Vulgate—in which the word Gaza has been improperly rendered Eruca, the word Eruca has never been employed by the Latins, in its Latin form, to denote an enemy peculiar to the vine. Pliny and Columella mention the Eruca as the scourge of trees and plants in general, without excepting the vine, but they do not speak of it as its especial enemy ”

“ Have these two species of insects been accurately distinguished from each other, and the habit acquired of expressing them by different names? Or is it a distinction erroneously established by grammarians and lexicographers, who of one word slightly varied have made two different words? Whatever may be the fact, the consideration of it is foreign to our present purpose, and will engage our attention at another opportunity. ”

“ Aristophanes, in the comedy of the Clouds, puts these words into the mouth of Socrates when speaking to Strepsiades: " Let go your thought, like the Melolontha which is launched into the air with a thread around its foot." The ancient scholiast remarks that this Melolontha is an insect of a golden colour, which children hold with a thread and cause to fly [65] . ”

“ They are however sometimes very abundant upon neglected vines; and in countries where the vine is only cultivated in greenhouses, they multiply extremely, whilst the other enemies of the vine are there unknown [112] . But the vines in greenhouses are not attacked by the same species of Cocci as they are exposed to in the open air. In the former situation they are attacked by the Coccus Adonidum [113] , not by the Coccus Vitis. ”

“ Happily for the progress of natural history, the great number of new productions brought into Europe from the countries recently discovered, at the end of the fifteenth and the commencement of the sixteenth centuries, soon rendered apparent the insufficiency of the works of the ancients with respect to this science. ”