DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 329 



periments of Dr. Pearson do not afford much ground 

 for supposing that it can be advantageously employed in 

 making candles*. De Azara speaks of a firm white wax 

 apparently similar, and the produce of an insect of the 

 same tribe, which is collected in South America in the 

 form of pearl-like globules from the small branches of 

 the Qiiahirdmi/, a small shrub two or three feet high"^. 



Insects in some countries not only furnish the natives 

 with wax but with resin, which is used instead of tar for 

 their ships. Molina informs us that, at Coquimbo in 

 Chili, resin, either the product of an insect or the conse- 

 quence of an insect's biting off the buds of a particular 

 species of Origanum, is collected in large quantities. 

 The insect in question is a small smooth red caterpillar 

 about half an inch long, which changes into a yellowish 

 moth with black stripes upon the wings [Phal. ceraria, 

 Molina). Early in the spring vast numbers of these 

 caterpillars collect on the branches of the Chila, where 

 they form their cells of a kind of soft white wax or resin, 

 in which they undergo their transformations. This wax, 

 which is at first very white, but by degrees becomes 

 yellow and finally brown, is collected in autumn by the 

 inhabitants, who boil it in water, and make it up into 

 little cakes for market"^. 



Honey, another well-known product of insects, has 

 lost much of its importance since the discovery of sugar ; 

 yet at the present day, whether considered as a delicious 

 article of food, or the base of a wholesome vinous beve- 

 rage of home manufacture, it is of no mean value even 

 in this country ; and in many inland parts of Europe, 



P/««/. T/'flWi'. 1794, xxi. ^ Voyage dans TAmcr. Mcrid.i. IGi. 

 "^ Molina's C/iifi, i. 174. 



