HANBTJET ON TWO INSECT-PRODUCTS FROM PERSIA. 179 



The first of these is Trehala or Tricala, under which name it 

 formed part of the Collection of Materia Medica sent by M. Delia 

 Sudda, of Constantinople, to the Paris Exhibition of 1855, and 

 since deposited in the Ecole de Pharmacie in Paris. 



Trehala (fig. 2) consists of cocoons of an ovoid or globular form, 

 about f of an inch in length ; their inner surface is composed of a 

 smooth, hard, dusky layer, external to which is a thick, rough, 

 tuberculated coating of a greyish-white colour and earthy appear- 

 ance. Some of the cocoons have attached to them the remains 

 of the tomentose stalk of the plant upon which they were formed ; 

 others have portions of a tomentose spiny leaf built into them ; 

 and, more rarely, one finds portions of the flowering heads of the 

 plant, a species of EcJiinops, similarly enclosed. Many of the 

 cocoons are open at one end and empty; others have a longi- 

 tudinal aperture, originally closed by the stalk of the plant, and 

 still contain the insect ; a few are entirely closed. Specimens of 

 this insect, extracted from the cocoons sent to Paris, were exa- 

 mined in 1856 by my friend Mr. W. Wilson Saunders, who pro- 

 nounced them to be Larinus maculatus of Faldermann, — a deter- 

 mination also arrived at by M. Jekel from specimens presented 

 by Mr. Loftus to the British Museum. Respecting these latter, 

 one of which is represented in fig. 1, M. Jekel makes the fol- 

 lowing remarks : — 



"Larinus maculatus, Faldermann, Faun. Transcauc. ii. p. 228, 

 449, tab. 6. f. 10, et iii. p. 198. — ScJionh. Gen. et Sp. Curcul. iii. 

 p. 112et vii. 2. p. 7.—Hochhuth, Bull. Moscou, 1847, No. 2. p. 538 

 (var. y). 



"Var. y. Larin. Onopordinis, Sch. loc. cit. iii. p. Ill (excl. synon.). 



" Of this species, Mr. Loftus captured several specimens, all of small 

 size : from some of them the poUinosity had been rubbed off, as is 

 represented in the figure by Mr. Ford {vide fig. 1), which shows only 

 a part of the inferior layer of tomentum and the greyish ground of 

 the dorsal and lateral maculae ; the latter, being the most densely 

 coloured in fresh specimens, are always the most persistent. These 

 belong to Schbnherr's var. y, which that author formerly regarded as 

 the Larinus Onopordinis, Fabr. Others of Mr. Loftus's specimens, 

 which are very fresh, belong to var. /3 ; none to the typical variety, 

 which is often larger in size. 



" This species has a very extended habitat : I have received it from 

 European Turkey (Frivaldski), Beyrouth, Caucasus, Persia (Dupont), 

 &c. &c. ; and it is recorded by Schonherr as also found in Barbary 

 and Portugal. 



" This is the insect which proceeds from the rough chalky-looking 

 nidus figured by Mr. Ford. (Vide fig. 2.)" 



