Page:Scientific Memoirs, Vol. 1 (1837).djvu/211

 Latrellle says that the Mole-cricket was unknown before the time of Mouffet. This is not the case: it is true that Mouffet is the first who published a good representation of it;—the first who gave it the name of Mole-cricket, or rather Cricket-mole, Grillo-talpa, a description which applies to it alone. "Liceat," says he, "hic quæso nobis præ nominum inopia onomatopoiein;" and he properly rejects the names of Sphondyle and Buprestis, which had been given to it; but this rejection proves that the Mole-cricket had previously attracted and engaged the attention of naturalists. In fact, Aldrovandus had given a good description of this insect before Mouffet, and a representation of it which, though bad, may still be recognised: he named it Talpa Ferrantis, because this insect had been previously named Mole, and Ferrante Imperato had figured it: Neapolitanus diligentissimus aromatarius in naturali sua historia, book xxviii., says Aldrovandus. Mouffet is therefore indebted to Ferrante for half the name which he gave this insect; for, that he was acquainted with his work is evident from his having borrowed from it the figure which he published of the Tarantula Spider. Ferrante's work was printed in Italian after his death in 1599, and translated into Latin. The original edition is scarce, and no naturalist of late times, that I am aware of, even including Linnæus, was acquainted with it; at least not one of them has quoted it. They all think that they have done much in ascending to old Aldrovandus; but we have just shown that the history of the Mole-cricket commences before him and Mouffet, and even before Ferrante; for if the application which we have made of the word Biurus be, as it appears, exact, we must refer to ancient times for the first mention of this insect.

The Mole-cricket causes great devastation, especially in the southern parts of Europe; it digs holes and constructs subterranean galleries, and cuts and detaches the roots of plants by means of its fore feet, which are shaped like saws; but this it does solely to provide a habitation for its posterity, for it neither eats plants nor their roots, but feeds only upon insects, and destroys a great number of the injurious ones. The havoc caused by the Mole-cricket (Courtillière) has probably been confounded with the devastation committed by the white worm of the Cockchafer, for, according to a recent dictionary of agriculture, the name of Courterolle has been given to both in several of the cantons of France.