The Insect World: Being a Popular Account of the Orders of Insects; Together with a Description of the Habits and Economy of Some of the Most Interesting SpeciesFiguier, Louis
Science
The Insect World: Being a Popular Account of the Orders of Insects; Together with a Description of the Habits and Economy of Some of the Most Interesting Species
Figuier, Louis
Insects
Next to the rolling caterpillars, let us mention those which are
contented with folding the leaves. These caterpillars then lie in a
sort of flat box. Besides the rolling and folding caterpillars, there
are still those which bind up a good many leaves in one packet. These
packets are to be found on nearly every tree and shrub, and the
caterpillar, lying nearly in the middle of the packet, is well
sheltered, and surrounded by a good supply of food. We will content
ourselves by giving a drawing, after Réaumur, of the pretty
arrangement of the leaves of a species of willow (Figs. 285, 286). In
the figures we see the parcel bound together by the caterpillar. In
that to the right we see the transverse section of the packet of
leaves magnified. At the two edges are seen the threads which keep the
leaves together, and the cavity occupied by the caterpillar.
The Vine Pyralis is produced from a leaf-rolling caterpillar, which
deserves our attention on account of the ravages which it has for some
time committed, and which it still commits in vineyards. It was at the
end of the sixteenth century that this pyralis first showed itself in
the environs of Paris, in the territory of Argenteuil. "The
inhabitants of this commune," writes the Abbé Leboeuf, "looked on
the insects which spoiled their vines in the spring of 1562 as a
visitation of God. The Bishop of Paris gave orders that they should
offer up public prayers for the diminution of these insects, and that
they should join to their prayers, exorcisms, without leaving the
church." Prayers, processions, exorcisms, were again had recourse to
in 1629, in 1717, and in 1733, to stop the ravages of this insect
among the vines of Colombes, in the territory of Aï.
The country of the Mâconnais and the Beaujolais became in their turn
the theatre of the ravages of the pyralis. These ravages very soon
increased and spread. In 1836, 1837, 1838, this plague raged in the
departments of the Saône-et-Loire, of the Rhône, of the Côte-d'Or, of
the Marne, of the Seine-et-Oise, of the Charente-Inférieure, of the
Haute-Garonne, of the Pyrénées-Orientales, and of the Hérault.
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