152 PROCEEDINGS ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



A very full discussion by Daniel Hanbury followed these pre- 

 liminary notes in an article entitled "Note on two insect-products 

 from Persia" (Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society, 

 Zoology, vol. 3, 1859, pp. 178-183, figs. 1-3). Hanbury carefully 

 reviews the earlier literature on trehala, which he also calls 

 tricala, citing the early Persian names for it (Shakar-elma-ascher) 

 and stating that the first reference to the substance was made by 

 Father Ange in his "Pharmacopcea Persica" in 1681. He de- 

 scribes the cocoons as ovoid or globular, about f of an inch long; 

 their inner surface composed of a smooth, hard, dusky layer, 

 external to which is a 'thick, rough, tuberculated coating of a 

 greyish-white color and earthy appearance. They are made 

 on the stems of Echinops and sometimes contain spiny portions 

 of the leaves. The maker of the cocoons seen by him is Larin us 

 ni'iculatus Faldermann a species closely related to nidificans, 

 as later defined by Capiomont and Leprieur. L minus maciilatnx 

 occurs in European Turkey, Caucasus, Persia, Barbary and 

 Portugal. 



Hanbury cites Dr. Honigberger as saying that these insect 

 nests are imported into Lahore from Hindustan, and that trehala 

 is abundant in the shops of the Jew drug-dealers of Constanti- 

 nople, where it is frequently used by the Arab and Turkish physi- 

 cians in the form of a decoction, which is regarded by them 

 as of peculiar efficiency in diseases of the respiratory organs. 



In the above cited work Hanbury also calls attention to the 

 production of a saccharine substance resembling dark honey 

 made by the punctures of Latin ux mellificus Jekel, in the stems 

 of Echinops in Persia. Dr. Heyden in 1880 (Le Naturaliste, 

 vol. 2, 237) quotes Larinus mellificus as a synonym of L. nidificini* 

 Guibourt. It would therefore seem that the adult in puncturing 

 Echinops causes a flow of honey, while the larva after feeding 

 to maturity constructs a saccharine cocoon. 



In the same year Gervais and van Beneden in their Zoologie 

 Medicale (Paris, 1859, pp. 311-313) give more details as to the 

 uses of trehala. To obtain the decoction used in diseases of 

 the respiratory organs, especially bronchial catarrh, a litre of 

 boiling water is poured over about 15 grams of cocoons, this 

 is stirred for about a quarter of an hour and then boiled, and 

 the decoction is drunk by the patient without being filtered. They 

 refer to the maker of the cocoons as Larinus syriacus Chevrolat 

 found on Onnpordon on the desert between Aleppo and Bagdad. 

 The cocoons must be collected before the weevils emerge and it 

 is thought probable that the latter have a part in the medicinal 

 action of the trehala. 



Various other short articles bearing upon the subject have 

 been published but all are cited in the works here mentioned. 



