BENEFICIAL INSECTS 229 



that in 1833, after an island life of only five years, they 

 threatened to totally destroy the prickly pears which the 

 poorer inhabitants used as food. Measures for the ex- 

 termination of the insects were set on foot, but, before they 

 had been put into execution, some of the islanders, more 

 far-seeing than their neighbours, took up the cultivation 

 of the prickly pear, and, incidentally, of cochineal, with the 

 result that the once despised insect became the greatest 

 source of wealth that the Canary Islands have ever known. 

 From an export of eight and a half pounds of cochineal in 

 1831, the Island industry increased by leaps and bounds to 

 a total export of eight hundred and forty-two thousand 

 eight hundred and twenty-seven pounds in 1850. When 

 we take into consideration that one pound of dried 

 cochineal represents about seventy thousand insects, the 

 insect mortality in these favourable years was beyond 

 computation. During part of this time the vines in the 

 Canary Islands were almost totally destroyed by a fungoid 

 disease, and cochineal, in very truth, saved the islanders 

 from starvation. 



In the Canary Islands the insects are cultivated mainly 

 on Cactus tuna and a dwarf species ; the former, a large 

 leaved species, is utilised in Teneriffe and the eastern 

 islands; the latter, smaller leaved species finds favour in 

 Las Palmas and the other islands. In the early days of 

 the industry, women were employed to collect the insects 

 from the plants in metal spoons a slow method that 

 entailed much waste ; now, however, a quicker method is 

 used. The branches are gathered and then beaten with 

 small brooms, made of palm leaves, in order to detach the 

 insects. This rough pruning causes the plants to send out 

 the fresh young growth, which is so essential for the 

 cochineal. In order to make certain that the young 

 insects shall be well looked after in early life, the fertilised 

 females, recognised by a reddish posterior spot, are care- 

 fully collected, covered with a linen cloth, and subjected to 



