COCCUS. 1Q1 



But of all the Insects of this genus by far the 

 mo<t important is the Coccus Cacti or Cochineel 

 Coccus, so celebrated for the beauty of the colour 

 which it yields when properly prepared. This 

 species is a native of South- America, and is pecu- 

 liarly cultivated in the country of Mexico, where 

 it feeds on the plants called Cactus cochenillifer, 

 and Cactus Opuntia. The female or officinal 

 Cochineel insect., in its full-grown pregnant or 

 torpid state, swells or grows to such a size, in 

 proportion to that of its first or creeping state, 

 that the legs, antennae, and proboscis are so small 

 with respect to the rest of the animal as hardly to 

 be discovered except by a good eye, or by the 

 assistance of a glass; so that on a general view it 

 bears as great a resemblance to a seed or berry as 

 to an animal. This was the cause of that ditYer- 

 encein opinion which long subsisted between seve- 

 ral authors; some maintaining that Cochineel was 

 a berry; while others contended that it was an in- 

 sect. We must also here advert to another error; 

 viz. that the Cochineel was a species of Coccinella 

 or Ladv-Bird. This seems to have taken its rise 



* 



from specimens of the Coccinella Cacti of Linnaeus 

 beinsr sometimes accidentallv intermixed with the 



* 



Cochineel in gathering and drying. 



AVhen the female Cochineel-Insect is arrived at 

 its full size, it fixes itself to the surface of the leaf, 

 and envelops itself in a white cottony matter, 

 which it is supposed to spin or draw through its 

 proboscis in a continued double filament, it being 

 observed that two filaments are frequently seeq 



