"Defcripiion of the Lacjba, or Lac lnfcch $6g 



along their anterior margins : they lie flat, like the wings of 

 a common fly when it walks or refts : no hairs from the 

 rump : it fprings mod actively to a confiderable dillance, oil 

 being touched : mouth in the under part of the head : max- 

 illse tranfverfe. To-day the female infects continue iffuing 

 in great numbers, and move about as on the 4th. 



December 7. The fmall red infects ftill more numerous, 

 and move about as before : winged infects, ftill very few, 

 continue active. There have been frefh leaves and bits of 

 the branches of both Mimofa Cinerea and Corinda put into 

 the wide mouthed bottle with them : they walk over them 

 inditfercntly, without fhowing any preference, or inclination 

 to work or copulate. I opened a cell whence I thought the 

 winged flies had come, and found feveral, eight or ten, 

 more in it, ftruo-o-Hna; to (hake off their incumbrances: they 

 were in one of thofe utriculi mentioned on the 4th, which 

 ends in two mouths, (hut up with fine white hairs, but one* 

 of them was open for the exit of the flies ; the other would 

 no doubt have opened in due time : this utriculus I found 

 now perfectly dry, and divided into cells by exceeding thin 

 partitions. I imagine, before any of the flies made their 

 tfcape, it might have contained about twenty. In thefe mi- 

 nute cells with the living flies, or whence they had made 

 their efcape, were fmall dry dark-coloured compreffed grains, 

 which may be the dried excrements of the flies *. 



* T he Hindoos have fix names for Lnc ; but they generally call it Lacftia 

 from the multitude of fmall infects, who, as they believe, difcharge it from 

 their itomachs, and at lengrh deftroy the tree on which they form their 

 colonies : a fine Pippala near Criflinanagriv is now almoft wholly deftroyed 

 by them. — Note by the President. 



Vol. I IT. Bb V. Mayow 



