DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 315 



with this view is the Li/tta vcsicaforia ; but in America 

 the L. clnerea and viitata (which are extremely com- 

 mon and noxious insects, while the L. vesicatoria is sold 

 there at sixteen dollars the pound,) have ])een substi- 

 tuted with great success, and are said to vesicate more 

 speedily and with less pain, at the same time that they 

 cause no strangury": and in China they have long 

 employed the Mi/Jahris Cichorci, which seems to have 

 been considered the most powerful vesicatory amongst 

 the ancients, who however appear to have been ac- 

 quainted with the common Lilta vesicatoria also, and 

 to have made use of it, as well as o{ Cetonia aurata and 

 some other insects mentioned by Pliny ''. Another spe- 

 cies of Mylabris has been described by Colonel Hard- 

 vf'\c\\e in ihe Asiatic Transactions"^ plentiful in all parts 

 of Bengal, Bahar, and Oude, which is fully as effica- 

 cious as the common Spanish fly. 



But it is as supplying products valuable in the arts 

 and manufactures, that we are chiefly indebted to in- 

 sects. In adverting to them in this view, I shall not 

 dwell upon the articles derived from a few species in 

 particular districts, and confined to these alone, such as 

 the soap which in some parts of Africa is manufactured 

 from a species of Carabus {C. saponarius, Oliv. '^) ; the 

 oil which Molina tells us is obtained in Chili from large 

 globular cellules found upon the wild rosemary, and 

 supposed to be produced by a kind of Cynips ^ ; and the 

 manure for which Scopoii informs us the hosts of Ephe- 



^ Illiger Mag. i. 256. " Hist. Nat. 1. xix. c. 4. . " Vol. v. 213. 



"" Oliv. Entom. iii. 69. t. iii,/. 26. Compare P/dlanthmput, ii. 210. 

 ? Molina's Chili, i. 174o 



