712 



COCHINEAL. 



KrL long in tho mououinl of MutfCi, and having had at 

 "V"' command extracts from ncvcral manuscript memoirs, 

 down up by order of the Count dc Testa, during hit 

 lay at Mexico, by alcaide* and ecclesiastics of the bi- 

 shopric of Oaxaca, he obtained tome useful information 

 respecting an insect which has become of the very first 

 importance to European manufactures. 



The fine cochineal differs from the wild one, not only 

 in si/.e, but also in being mealy and covered with a white 

 powder, while the wild one is enveloped in a thick cot- 

 ton, which prevents its rings from being distinguished ; 

 but the metamorphoses of the two insects are the tame. 

 ID thote parts of South America where for ages the 

 wild cochineal has been reared, it has never yet lost its 

 down. It is true, that in the nopalenes established by 

 M. Thiery at St Domingo, it was thought to be obser- 

 ved, that the insect under the care of man increased in 

 ti/e. and underwent a sensible change in the thick- 

 ness of itt cotton covering ; but M. Latreille, who is 

 inclined to look upon the wild cochineal as a different 

 species from the fine one, believes that this diminu- 

 tion of down is merely apparent, and that it must be at- 

 tributed to the thickness of the body of the insect. The 

 rings on the back of the female being more dilated, the 

 hairs covering this part must appear leas close, and con- 

 sequently clearer. Humboldt was informed by several 

 persons who had long lived in the neighbourhood of Oax- 

 aca, that sometimes among the small coccus recently 

 brought into the world, individuals are observed covered 

 with very long hair. But it must not be forgotten, that 

 the fine cochineal, on leaving the body of the mother, is 

 wrinkled in the back, and covered with twelve silks fre- 

 quently very long, which disappear when it becomes adult. 

 Those who have not attentively compared the offspring 

 of the fine cochineal, with that of the wild cochineal, are 

 naturally struck with the presence of these hairs. The 

 fine cochineal appears powdery ten days after its birth, 

 when it frees itself from its fringy dress of small silks, 

 whereas the wild cochineal is more and more covered as 

 it gets older, its down thickens, and the insect resembles 

 a small white flake, at the period which precedes the 

 conjunction of the two sexes. 



It is sometimes observed in the nopalcries of Oaxaca, 

 that the winged male of the, fine cochineal couples with 

 the female of the wild cochineal. This fact has been ci- 

 ted as an evident proof of the identity of the species; but 

 we commonly see in Europe coccinellcs couple togtther 

 essentially different in their form, shape, and colour. 

 When two species of insects are in the same vicinity, 

 we ought not to be astonished at their coupling toge- 

 ther. 



M. Thiery thought himself warranted in maintaining, 

 that the fine cochineal and the plant on which it feeds, are 

 both found wild in Mexico, and that the insect and the no- 

 pal of the plantations of Oaxaca, have been insensibly mo- 

 dified in their form by means of long culture. This sup- 

 position, however, appears equally gratuitous with that 

 which would pronounce grain, maize, and the banana, to be 

 degenerated plants. The coccus cacti has an infinite num- 

 ber of enemies among the insects and birds. Wherever 

 the cotton cochineal propagates of itself, it is not to be 

 (bund in any abundance, from which we may easily con- 

 ceive that the mealy cochinral must have been still more 

 rare in its native country, because it it much more deli- 

 cate, and not being covered with down, is more sensible 

 to the cold and humidity of the air. In discussing the 

 question, whether the fine cochineal would propagate 

 without the care of man, the subdelcgatc of the province 



of Oaxaca, Ruiy. de Montaya, (Gazela de Littratura d Coehinea 

 Mexico, 1794, p. '2'2H.) cites a very remarkable fact in '^"",'~~ 

 his memoir, " that at seven leagu-s distance from the vil- 

 lage of Nrxapa, there is a place where, favoured by par- 

 ticular circumstances, the most beautiful grana find is to 

 be found, on very high and very prickly wild nopals, 

 without any pains having ever been bestowed in cleaning 

 the plant!, or in renewing the offspring of the cochineal." 

 Besides, we are not to be astonished, that even in a coun- 

 try where this animal H indigenous, it should seldom be 

 found in a wild state, from the time that it began to be 

 in request among the inhabitants, and to be reared in no- 

 paleriea. It is probable that the Toltec*, before underta- 

 king so troublesome a spcc:es of cultivation, collected 

 the fine cochineal on the nopals, which grew sponta- 

 neously on the sides of the mountains of Oaxaca. Ga- 

 thering the females before laying, the species would soon 

 be destroyed ; and to obviate this progressive destruc- 

 tion, and prevent the mixture of the cotton and mealy 

 cochineals on the same cactus, (the former depriving the 

 latter of all nourishment,) nopalerics were established by 

 the natives. 



The plants on which the two species of cochineal 

 are propagated, are essentially different ; and thi un- 

 doubted fact is one of those which indicate a primitive 

 difference between the gratia Jina, and the grana iil- 

 vcttre. Is it probable if the mealy cochineal wcr mere- 

 ly a variety of the cotton cochineal, that it world perish 

 on the same cactus which nourishes the latter, and 

 which botanists designate by the names of Cactus 

 opiiniia, Cnctiis tuna, and Cactus Jicus iniiica ? M. 

 '1 bicry asserts, that in the plain ot Cut de Sac in St Do- 

 mingo, the cotton-cochineal does not live on the Caclut 

 tuna, but on the Cactus percskia, which he classes among 

 the articulated Indian figj ; and Humboldt believe-, that 

 this naturalist has confounded a variety of opuntia, with 

 the true pereskia, which is a tree with large and thick 

 leaves, and on which he never yet found any cochineal. 

 He considers it also as extremely doubtful, whether the 

 plant called by Linnaeus Cactus coccineUi/er, cultivated 

 in Europe, is the nopal on w.i'cli the Indians of Oaxaca 

 rear the mealy cochineal. M. Decandolle. (Plantef 

 grasses de M. M. Rfilontr rt Dccamlollt, livraison 'J4. ) 

 appears to be of Humboldt':, opinion; tor he cites tae 

 wild nopal ot Thiery de Menouville, as synonymous with 

 the cochineal Indian fig, which is entirely different from 

 that of the plantations. Linnzus indeed gave thi- name 

 of Cactus coccincllifer to the Indian tijr, with which se- 

 veral botanical gardens of Europe had received the cot- 

 ton cochineal, a species with a purple flower. (Ficus IH- 

 dica vcrmicitlof projerens of Plukcnct,) winch grows 

 wild in Jamaica, the island of Cuba, and in almost all 

 the Spanish continental colonies. Humboldt shewed 

 this cactus to well-informed persons, who had carefully 

 examined the nopaleries of Oaxaca, and they uniformly 

 told him, that the nopal of the plantation is essentially 

 different from it, and that the latter is never to be found 

 in a wild state. The Abbe Clavigero, also, who lived 

 five years in Misteca, expressly says, that the fruit of 

 the nopal on which the fine cochineal is reared, is small, 

 insipid, and white, while the fruit of the Cactus coccinel- 

 lifer is red. Ulloa maintains that the true nopal is with- 

 out prickles ; but he appears to have confounded this 

 plant wild an Indian fig, which is found in the gardens 

 (com/Co*) of the Indians of Mexico and Peru, and which 

 the Creoles, on account of its gigantic size, the excel- 

 lence of its fruits, and the beauty of its articulations, 

 which are of a bluish green, and destitute of prickles, 



