It appears evident, as has been advanced by Valckenaer, Bochart, and the most learned philologists, that the Iks of certain authors, an insect which infests the vine, is the same word as the Ips employed by other authors as the name of an insect which also infests the vine, and that Ips, Ipes, Iks, Ikes, are only differences of dialect.. This agreed, it is evident from our critical examination, that the conclusion to be formed from the information we receive from the Greek authors, including the grammarians and lexicographers of the lower ages, is, that Ips is employed as the name of an insect which preys upon horn and meat, and also of one which infests the vine, of which it devours the buds, either in the state of larva or as the perfect insect. We learn from this that the name of Ips or Iks was applied by the ancients to two or three different species of insects or larvae of insects. But since the ancients confounded these species, and assigned them but one name, there must necessarily be an analogy between them. There is only one species of the larvæ of the Coleoptera or Scarabaei possessing trophi, or organs for manducation, sufficiently hard to pierce horn. The Ips of Homer and of St. John Chrysostom belongs therefore to the Coleoptera, consequently the Ips of meat and of the vine must also belong to that class. As we are treating of an insect which preys upon horn and meat, naturalists know that it must belong to Linnæus's tribe of Dermestes, the larvæ of which are so formidable to their collections. They are not ignorant that these insects are found in warehouses of furs, in offices, pantries, and all places which receive animal matters, and that they spare neither horn nor feathers; but our knowledge of them is not sufficient to determine to what genus of modern entomologists those Dermestes belong which prey upon old goat's horn, particularly upon that of the Ægagrus, of which the bow of Ulysses was formed, and which is particularly mentioned by Homer. We are well acquainted only with the metamorphoses of the Dermestes lardarius, and the Dermestes Pellio, the Dermestes of bacon and furs. These insects belong to the numerous family of the Nitidulariæ of Latreille[1]. Degeer[2] long ago separated from the Dermestes a genus to which he judiciously gave the name of Ips; but this name has been since given to genera very different to that which he had created, though they also were formed from the numerous family of the Dermestes. It might possibly be the same larva which infested horn and meat, as is asserted by the grammarian published by Boissonade; it is also possible that the ancients confounded the larvæ of two affinal but different genera. But
- ↑ Latreille, in Cuvier's Tab. du Règne Animal, vol. iv. p. 503. Schœnherr, Synonymia Insect., vol. i. part ii. p. 236. No. 25. Walckenaer, Faun. Paris., vol. i. p. 124. No. 2. Panzer, Faun. Insect. Germ. Ixxxix. 12. Fabr., Syst. Eleulh., vol. i. p. 422.
- ↑ Degeer, Mém. pour servir à I'Hist. des Ins., vol. v. p. 190.
