Mr. H. J. Carter on the Natural History of the Lac-Insect. 9 



ber), that every part of the branch covered with the new lac was 

 rendered white by it ; and although there were still a few females 

 which were not enveloped by it (and probably, therefore, were 

 not impregnated), yet for the most part they were thickly covered 

 by this cottony substance ; and the few remaining males that 

 were present were so inextricably entangled in it, and so pre- 

 vented from coming into contact with the females by it, that, 

 together with the presence of dead ones also entangled in the 

 mass, it may be inferred that this rapid evolution of the cotton- 

 like substance at once indicates the death-season of the males, 

 and that impregnation has been fully performed. 



One other observation I would add, which is more practical 

 than scientific, viz. that, to obtain as much resin and as much 

 colouring matter as possible, the gathering of lac should take 

 place towards the end of May or the beginning of June, just 

 before the evolution of the young, which, as will have been seen 

 above, carry away with them the greater part of the colouring 

 matter. In Ure^s ' Dictionary of Arts and Manufactures,' which 

 contains by far the best, and least incorrect, account of this insect 

 that I have met with, it is stated that the evolution of the young 

 takes place in " November or December," and afterwards, in 

 " October or November," while the lac is gathered twice a year, 

 in " March and October." It is also stated in the same article 

 that the male insect has " four wings," and that there is " one 

 to every 5000 females ;" while we are not a little surprised to 

 see, in P.Gervais and Van Beneden's ' Zoologie Medicale ' (1859), 

 p. 374, that lac " exudes from certain trees through the punc- 

 tures which have been made by the females." 



It was this and sundry other statements, together with seeing 

 that the insect could be examined successfully only in the country 

 where it lives, which induced me to avail myself of the opportu- 

 nities presented to me of obtaining as much of its history as I 

 could, for publication. 



On the 25th of June I received the branch of the Custard- 

 apple tree with the living matured lac-insect on it in its incrus- 

 tation. About the 5 th of July, the young or larvae, about l-40th 

 of an inch long, began to issue. On the 14th ai August all were 

 fixed to, and progressively enlarging, in incrustation, on the 

 Custard-apple tree. On the 8th of September the males were 

 leaving their incrustations and impregnating the females, each sex 

 being now about l-27th inch long ; and on the 20th of September 

 the females were almost all concealed under an exuberant evolu- 

 tion of the white cottony substance (which we now know to be 

 the attenuated extremities of the tracheae covered with a white 



