190 COCCIDJE, OR SCALE INSECTS; COCHINEAL. 



of the plant on which they feed. The Coccus of the ancients 

 was a native of the Levant ; but that which furnishes the 

 Cochineal so highly valued at the present time, was originally 

 confined to Mexico, where it feeds on the plants of the Cactus 

 tribe ; it has been introduced, however, along with its proper 

 food, into Spain and Algiers, as well as into the hot-houses of 

 this country. Immense quantities of Cochineal are annually 

 brought to Europe; in the year 1850 the quantity imported 

 into Britain alone was 2,514,512 lbs.,each pound containing about 

 70,000 insects. The Lac of the East Indies, which is extensively 

 employed in the composition of varnishes, the making of sealing- 

 wax, &c., is the product of another species of Coccus. The 

 species which inhabit our own country, are important rather on 

 account of the damage they commit, than the benefit they afford 

 to man. The bark of many of our trees often appears warty, 

 by reason of a great number of small oval or rounded bodies, 

 like a shield or scale, which are fixed to them, and in which no 

 external traces of the insect are to be observed. These, however, 

 are Iarva3 belonging to the tribe in question. Some of them are 

 females ; others young males, which are similar to them in form. 

 At a subsequent period, they all undergo singular transforma- 

 tions. The males fix themselves to the plant, and pass into the 

 pupa state, in which they remain completely at rest ; and at 

 last emerge as winged insects, coming out of their cocoons 

 backwards, with the wings extended flatly over their heads. 

 The females, on the other hand, remain attached to the plant, 

 and increase in size, in consequence of the development of a large 

 number of eggs in their interior ; but they undergo scarcely any 

 other change. The eggs are deposited between the lower side 

 of the body, and the surface to which it is attached ; the latter 

 having been previously covered with a sort of cottony secretion. 

 The parent then dies, and her body dries up and becomes a solid 

 cocoon, which covers the eggs. Here the eggs are hatched ; and 

 the young larvae, which are at first active in their habits, quit 

 their envelope, and ascend to the extremities of the branches ; 

 there they affix themselves by their sucking-beak, gradually in- 

 crease in size, and lose their activity. In this condition they 



