HEMIPTEEA. 135 



upper side, and the two together form a pretty large cavity. When 

 the mother dies, which is not long in happening, her abdomen 

 dries up, her skin becomes horny, and forms a sort of shell. It 

 is in this membranous cradle that the larvae of the cochineal insect 

 are born. The cochineal insect in its wild state lives in the 

 woods. But it can without difficulty be reared artificially. 



Every one knows that the little insect called the cochineal 

 furnishes, when its body has been dried and reduced to powder, a 

 colouring matter of a beautiful red, peculiar to itself. This 

 circumstance has saved the cochineal from the persecution 

 to which so many other kinds of insects have been devoted 

 by the hand of man. In hot climates, in which the cochineal 

 insect delights, it has been preserved, and is cultivated as an 

 article of commerce. This is how the cochineal is reared in 

 Mexico : An open piece of land is chosen, protected against the 

 west wind, and of about one or two acres in extent. This is sur- 

 rounded with a hedge of reeds, planted in lines, distant from each 

 other about a yard, with cuttings of cactus at most about two feet 

 apart. The cactus garden made, the next thing is to establish in 

 it cochineals. With this object in view they are sought in the 

 woods, or else the females of the cochineal insect which are gravid 

 are taken off plants which have been sheltered during the winter, 

 and placed in dozens, in nests made of cocoa-nut fibres, or in little 

 plaited baskets made of the leaves of the dwarf palm, and hung 

 on the prickles of the cactus. These are very soon covered 

 with young larvae. The only thing now required to be done is 

 to shelter them from wind and rain. 



The larvae are changed into perfect insects, which take 

 up their abode permanently on the branches of the cacti, as 

 Fig. 93 represents. The Mexicans gather them as soon as they 

 have reached the perfect state. The harvest cannot be difficult, 

 considering the immobility of these little creatures. When col- 

 lected, the cochineals are shut up in wooden boxes, and sent to 

 Europe, to be used in dyeing. 



Such is the method, very simple, as we see, of rearing the cochi- 

 neal, a method which has been followed for centuries in Mexico. 

 Towards the end of the year 1700, a Frenchman named Thierry 

 de Menouville, formed the project of taking this precious insect away 



