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



and eiglity-five for the latter ; but in the latter instance almost 

 all the males were provided with wings, as before stated, while 

 in the former not a single winged male was observed. 



The resinous secretion goes on more rapidly in the first 

 than in the second evolution, owing probably to the greater 

 quantity of sap which is present in the trees in the summer 

 than in the winter or cool season ; but the greatest amount of 

 resin, comparing that produced by the brood of December 1859 

 with that of the brood of July ] 860, appears to me to be pro- 

 duced by the December brood. In each instance the Lac-insect 

 perishes, whether it gives forth a new brood or not ; so that the 

 old lac thus becomes entirely lifeless. 



Having previously assumed that only one evolution takes 

 place during the year, it is necessary to modify the practical de- 

 ductions which I have made. Thus I have stated that, as the 

 colouring-matter or " lac-dye " is contained in the young ones, 

 the lac should be gathered just before their issue, that is, " to- 

 wards the end of May or the beginning of June," so that at once 

 the greatest amount of " lac " and " lac-dye " might be obtained ; 

 and now it is necessary to add that a sec ' 

 be made, viz. in the month of November. 



Then, as regards the propagation, branches of the tree bearing 

 the lac with the insect in it should be gathered just previous 

 to the evolution of the young, and tied to the trees on which 

 it is desired to grow it, — it being understood that, as their 

 numbers increase by ^' lakhs " (100,000's) (from which the name 

 of " lac," according to Sir W. Jones, would appear to be derived), 

 the trees must be thus sacrificed. And as regards self-propaga- 

 tion, it would be difficult to conceive how this could take place 

 with the early incarceration of the females, did we not know that 

 the larvae are so light and so numerous that they might be con- 

 veyed from tree to tree in a hundred ways ; and as to impreg- 

 nation, the females may be able to produce even more than one 

 brood without this — as is notorious with the Aphides, which be- 

 long to the same order, and afford the oldest authenticated in- 

 stance of parthenogenesis. 



In the second volume of the 'Asiatic Researches,' p. 261 (ed. 

 Lond.), there is a paper on the Lac-insect by Roxburgh, to 

 which my attention has been directed ; and it is interesting to 

 find that his description was written from an evolution of the 

 larvse which was taking place in Bengal on the 4th of December. 

 His figure of the male, and its appearance at the same time with 

 the larvse, is of course erroneous. 



Bombay, March 12, 1861. 



