186 DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 



With this insect the Chinese stock the two kinds of tree (Kan-la-chu and 

 Choni-Ia-chu), on which alone it is found, and which always afterwards 

 retain it. Towards the beginning of winter small tumours are perceived, 

 which increase until as big as a walnut. These are the nests ^abdomens 

 of the females) filled with the eggs that are to give birth to the Cocci, 

 which, when hatched, disperse themselves over the leaves, and perforate 

 the bark under which they retire. The wax (called Pe-Ia, white wax, be- 

 cause so by nature) begins to appear about the middle of June. At first 

 a few filaments like fine soft wool are perceived, rising from the bark 

 round tlie body of the insect, and these increase more and more until the 

 gathering, which takes place before the first hoar frosts in September. 

 The wax is carried to court, and reserved for the emperor, the princes, 

 and chief mandarins. If an ounce of it be added to a pound of oil, it 

 forms a wax little inferior to that made by bees. The physicians employ 

 it in several diseases ; and the Chinese, when about to speak in public, 

 and assurance is necessary, previously eat an ounce of it to prevent 

 swoonings^; a use of it for which happily our less diffident orators have 

 no call. This account is in the main confirmed by Geomelli Careri, except 

 that he calls the wax insect a worm which bores to the pith of certain 

 trees ; and says that it produces a sufficient supply for the whole empire, 

 the different provinces of which are furnished from Xantung, where it is 

 bred in the greatest perfection, with a stock of eggs.*^ A very different 

 origin, however, is assigned to the Pe-la by Sir George Staunton, who 

 informs us that it is produced by a species of Cicada {Flata Umbata), which 

 in its larva state feeds upon a plant like the privet, strewing upon the stem 

 a powder, which when collected forms the wax.^ But as he merely states 

 that this powder was " supposed'"" to form it, and does not himself appear 

 to have made the experiment of dissolving it in oil, it is most probable 

 that his information was incorrect, and that Grosier's statement is the 

 true one. 



This probability is nearly converted into certainty by the fact that many 

 Aphides and Cocci secrete a wax-like substance, and that a kind of wax 

 very analogous to the Pe-la, and of the same class with bees' wax, only 

 containing more carbon, is actually produced in India by a nondescript 

 species of Coccus remarlsable for providing itself with a small quantity of 

 honey like our bees. This substance, for specimens of which I am in- 

 debted to the kindness of Sir Joseph Banks, was first noticed by Dr. 

 Anderson, and called by him luhite-lac. It could be obtained in any quan- 

 tity fiom the neighbourhood of Madras, and at a much cheaper rate than 

 bees' wax : but the experiments 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 Quabirdmi/, 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 siiips. Molina informs 

 us that, at Coquimbo in Chili, resin, either the product of an insect or the 



1 Grosiei"'s (JJiina, i. 439. 



^ Quoted in Southey's Thalaba, ii. IGG. 5 Embnsarj to China, i. 400. 



•* JPhil. Trans. 1794. xxi. * Voyage dans VAmer. Merid. i. 104. 



