Mr. H. J. Carter on the Natural History of the Lac- Insect. 3 



without rupture by simply breaking the incrustation), it will be 

 observed that each cell is filled with a single insect, which is now 

 almost as much unlike one as any object can well be unlike an- 

 other, — consisting of a pyriform sac of a dark-red colour, 

 smooth, shining, and presenting at its elongated end one, and at 

 its obtuse end three papillary processes (fig. Ice); the former, 

 which is a continuation of the elongated end, is fixed to the bark; 

 and the three latter, which project from the middle of the obtuse 

 end, are respectively continuous with the three holes in the 

 lac above noticed. As with these holes, so with the three pro- 

 cesses: one is much larger and longer than the other two, 

 which latter are of the same size ; the former is also further 

 distinguished by having several hairs round the margin of the 

 aperture which exists at its extremity, — a point which it is de- 

 sirable to remember, as it will serve by and by to identify it 

 with the anal extremity of the animal when in its insect form. 



So far the spirit of wine assists ; but when we come to the 

 contents of the body, it is not only necessary to avoid using 

 spirit of wine, from the disfiguration which it occasions by 

 causing the tissues to contract, but also to extricate the body by 

 fracturing the lac, and dissect its contents as quickly as possible, 

 on account of the rapidity with which they pass into dissolution 

 after death : this is probably the reason why this part of the 

 history of the insect has remained unpublished up to the present 

 time. 



Directing our attention to the interior, after the rupture of 

 the insect, which takes place more or less with that of the lac, 

 we are at once struck with the voluminousness of the organ 

 containing the red colouring matter, which organ thus obscures 

 everything else ; and it is not before a quantity of it is removed 

 by gentle edulcoration that we can (still under water, for the 

 anatomy of this insect can be studied in no other way) arrive at 

 a view of the other organs of the body, when it will be observed 

 that there is an alimentary canal, liver, tracheae, and, last of all, 

 the organ containing the red colouring matter, which we shall 

 presently find to be the ovary. To each of these organs, then, 

 separately and briefly, we will now give our attention. 



The alimentary canal commences with an attenuated, shape- 

 less oesophagus (PI. I. fig. 2 d), at the elongated end of the body 

 {a), which is thus seen to be the oral extremity, and after pass- 

 ing upwards for about two-thirds of the length of the abdominal 

 cavity, where it becomes enlarged and convoluted, turns back to 

 make a single revolution {e e), in the course of which it soon 

 becomes diminished in calibre {g), and receiving the hepatic duct 

 at this point, terminates at length in the rectum, which opens 

 at the great papillary process {b). The liver (//) consists of a 



1* 



