ENTOaOLOO Y. 37 



Sub-order FBYOrnTniRIA. 



Mostly parasitic on trees and shrubs. The larvie arc often covered with 

 flocculent cottony tlireads. 



Famihj Coccidae. 



Coccus LACCA. 



The Lie insect is the most important member of tliis family. Tlie male has two 

 wings, and flics freely ; btit the female is ajiterous and parasitical (so to say) at all 

 ages. The body is a mass of red-coloured paste, which is simply the lac dye of 

 commerce, and from the sides of her body exudes a resin in such quantities as 

 gradually to encase her in a sort of cell ; this resin is the ' shell lac ' of commerce. 

 The crude lac, as brought to market, consists of the twigs whereon the resinous cells 

 are attached, in which the female lac insects are contained. The whole mass is 

 pounded up and stcejicd in water, which dissolves out the coloured matter formed of 

 the insect's body. This is subsequently precipitated and formed into cakes, aftc-r 

 ■which the refuse is heated, and the resin melted out. This process is conducted in 

 canvas bags, which are subjected to pressure, and the pure resin as it exudes is 

 scraped off in flakes, which are termed ' shell lac,' being faintly orange-tinged. Dr. 

 Mason says, "The Karens think the lac is produced by an ant, and call it the lac ant." 

 The insect is parasitical on several species of trees, as Fmi» reh'giosa and other tigs, 

 Butea frondom, Zizijphus jujuha, etc., and is sometimes so crowded on the stems that 

 they are seen incrusted, as it were, with a pipe-like mass half an inch in diameter or 

 more, made up of the closely-packed cells of the ' lac insect.' The finest ' lac ' comes 

 from Siam and the Shan states via Eaugoon, and much is also collected in Assam and 

 some parts of liengal. In 18.50-51, according to Balfour {up. cit.), 3757 tons of 

 lac and lac dye were exported from Calcutta, and 1670 tons from Bombay, or in all 

 5-127 tons in one year of this insect, worth over £200,000. Some species of this order 

 secrete waxy filaments, and ' Manna ' is said to be an exudation caused by the 

 puncture of the Coccus nuumifcrus. 



Famihj Apliididse. 



Aphides are mostly viviparous in summer, and oviparous Lu winter, and in tlie 

 former case the females are winged. Agamic reproduction {Pa/i//cnoi/e>iesis) may bo 

 carried on through many generations, a fact as singular as it is well ascertained. 

 The members of this family constitute those familiar pests of the gardener. Plant 

 lice, including the more formidable Phi/lhxera, which in some years has almost ruined 

 the grape haiTcsts in some parts of Europe. 



The Aohis, or plant louse, exudes a nectareous or saccharine fluid, familiarly 

 called honey-dew, and of which ants are particularly fond. Groups of ants may be 

 often seen suiTounding the Aphides and gently stroking them with their antennto, to 

 induce them to yield the coveted juice, which from time to time the Aphis does, by 

 ejecting a pellucid drop from its anal siphunclo, which drop is at once consumed by the 

 nearest ant with e\"ident signs of gastronomic approval. Ants, too, are said to carry off 

 some species of Aphides into their nests, where they are carefully tended, precisely 

 as cows are by men, for the sake of their potable secretions. Van Benedeu thus 

 writes of these insects in his entertaining and popular work on animal parasites ' : — 

 "Who does not know those small green bodies, of the size of a pm's head, coming 

 like a cloud upon the buds and leaves of the rose bushes, which shrivel and wither 

 immediately ? There are green ones on certain plants, and black ones on others ; but 

 whatever their colour, they are living pearls which form garlands round the stalk. . . . 

 Let us examine with a magnifying lens these walking grains of sand, each grain will 

 reveal to us a charming insect, whose head is adorned with two little antenna;, and 

 has globular projecting eyes, glistening with the richest colours ; behind these are 

 two reservoirs of liquid sugar, elegantly mounted on a polished stalk and always full. 



' Animal Parasites, Internatioual Sikutific Series, Vol. XX. l>y P. J. Van Beneden. 



