328 DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 



in public and assurance is necessary, previously eat an 

 ounce of it to prevent swoonings a ; a use of it for which 

 happily our less diffident orators have no call. This 

 account is in the main confirmed by Geomelli Careri, 

 except that he calls the wax-insect a worm which bores 

 to the pith of certain trees ; and says that it produces a 

 sufficient supply for the whole empire, the different pro- 

 vinces of which are furnished from Xantung, where it is 

 bred in the greatest perfection, with a stock of eggs b . 

 A very different origin, however, is assigned to the Pe-la 

 by Sir George Staunton, who informs us that it is pro- 

 duced by a species of Cicada (Plata limbata\ which in 

 its larva state feeds upon a plant like the privet, strew- 

 ing upon the stem a powder, which when collected forms 

 the wax c . But as he merely states that this powder was 

 " supposed" to form it, and does not himself appear to 

 have made the experiment of dissolving it in oil, it is 

 most probable that his information was incorrect, and 

 that Grosier's statement is the true one. 



This probability is nearly converted into certainty by 

 the fact that many Aphides and Cocci secrete a wax-like 

 substance, and that a kind of wax very analogous to the 

 Pe-la, and of the same class with bees-wax, only con- 

 taining more carbon, is actually produced in India by a 

 nondescript species of Coccus remarkable for providing 

 itself with a small quantity of honey like our bees. This 

 substance, for specimens of which I am indebted to the 

 kindness of Sir Joseph Banks, was first noticed by 

 Dr. Anderson, and called by him white-lac. It could be ob- 

 tained in any quantity from the neighbourhood of Madras, 

 and at a much cheaper rate than bees-wax : but the ex- 



* Grosier's China,i. 439. b Quoted in Southe/s Thalaba, ii. 166. 



Embassy to China, i. 400. 



