9G HALF HOUKS WITH IXSECTS. [Packard. 



two orifices of the ducts, while the ducts themselves as well 

 as the glands are absent, and the two other systems are 

 much less developed than in the workers. In the drones 

 not even the orifices of the lower cephalic sj'stem could be 

 found." 



We maj^ now consider the other wax-producing insects 

 whose products, at first found in such minute quantities, go 

 to swell the wealth of nations, as in Great Britain alone 

 about $1,000,000 worth of wax is used. While there is 

 true vegetable wax formed on the berries of our Candlemas 

 bush or Bayberry (Myrica) j-et the pela wax of China is se- 

 creted by a certain kind of Coccus, or bark-louse. Westwood 

 in his "Modern Classification of Insects" (vol. ii, p. 449) 

 tells us that the Coccus ceriferus Fabr., described by An- 

 derson in his letters from Madras (1781), and b}' Pearson in 

 the "London Philosophical Transactions," 1794, is employed 

 in the production of a white wax, the body of the female 

 being enveloped in a thick and solid coat of it. We have 

 with us certain kinds of bark lice which secrete a woolly 

 mass which envelops their body. Such is the mealy bug 

 found upon our house plants, and to which we shall again 

 refer in subsequent pages. 



We have glanced at some of the relations of insects to 

 ourselves, and if some memories not altogether of an agree- 

 able nature have been awakened, yet upon the whole it will 

 be felt that these little beings serve some good purpose in 

 the world, and minister in many ways to our personal com- 

 fort. 



32 



