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IV. Defcription of the Licjba, or Lac InfeS *. By Mr. W. 

 Roxburgh, Surgeon on the Madras LJlabliJhment . 

 Communicated by Dr. James Anderson. From the 

 Aiiatic Refearches. 



OOME pieces of very frefli- looking Lac, adhering to fmall 

 branches of Mimofa cinerea, were brought me from the 

 mountains on the 20th of laft month. I kept them care- 

 fully, and to-day, the 4th of December, fourteen days from 

 the time they came from the hills, myriads of exceedingly 

 minute animals were obferved creeping about the lac, and 

 branches it adhered to, and more ftill iffuing from fmall 

 holes over the furface of the cells : other fmall and per- 

 forated excrefcences were obferved with a glafs amongft the 

 perforations, from which the minute infects iffued, regularly 

 two to each hole, and crowned with fome very fine white 

 hairs. When the hairs were rubbed off, two white fpoU 

 appeared. The animals, when fingle, ran about pretty 

 brifkly, but in general they were fo numerous as to be crowd- 

 ed over one another. The body is oblong, tapering moft to- 

 wards the tail, below plain, above convex, with a double, or 

 fiat margin : laterally on the back part of the thorax are two 

 fmall tubercles, which may be the eyes : the body behind 

 the thorax is croffed with twelve rings : legs fix ; feelers 

 (antennae) half the length of the body, jointed, hairy, each 

 ending in two hairs as long as the antenna; : ramp, a white 

 point between two terminal hairs, which are as long as the 

 body of the animal. The mouth I could not lee. On 

 opening the cells, the fubftance that they were formed of can- 

 not be better defcribed, with refpeft to appearance, than by 

 laying it is like the tranfparent amber that beads are made 

 of : the external covering of the cells may be about half, a 

 line thick, is remarkably firong, and able to refill injuries : 



* This difcovery of Mr. Roxburgh will bring Lac a genus into tlv 

 (era of Linn 



the 



