NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 257 



LETTER LIII. 



As I have sometimes known you make inquiries about several 

 kinds of insects, I shall here send you an account of one sort 

 which I little expected to have found in this kingdom. I had 

 often observed that one particular part of a vine growing on the 

 walls of my house was covered in the autumn with a black dust- 

 like appearance, on which the flies fed eagerly ; and that the shoots 

 and leaves thus affected did not thrive ; nor did the fruit ripen. 

 To this substance I applied my glasses ; but could not discover 

 that it had anything to do with animal life, as I at first expected : 

 but, upon a closer examination behind the larger boughs, we were 

 surprised to find that they were coated over with husky shells, from 

 whose sides proceeded a cotton-like substance, surrounding a mul- 

 titude of eggs. This curious and uncommon production put me 

 upon recollecting what I- have heard and read concerning the 

 coccus vitis vinifercz of Linnaeus, which, in the south of Europe, 

 infests many vines, and is a horrid and loathsome pest. As soon 

 as I had turned to the accounts given of this insect, I saw at once 

 that it swarmed on my vine ; and did not appear to have been at 

 all checked by the preceding winter, which had been uncommonly 

 severe. 



Not being then at all aware that it had anything to do with 

 England, I was much inclined to think that it came from Gibraltar 

 among the many boxes and packages of plants and birds which I 

 had formerly received from thence; and especially as the vine 

 infested grew immediately under my study-window, where I usually 

 kept my specimens. True it is that I had received nothing from 

 thence for some years : but as insects, we know, are conveyed from 

 one country to another in a very unexpected manner, and have a 

 wonderful power of maintaining their existence till they fall into a 

 nidus proper for their support and increase, I cannot but suspect 

 still that these cocci came to me originally from Andalusia. Yet, 

 all the while, candour obliges me to confess that Mr. Lightfoot 

 has written me word that he once, and but once, saw these insects 



