2.")0 THE TROPICAL WORLD. 



but the Mexican haciendero purposely lays out his Nopal plan- 

 tations that they may be preyed upon by the Coccus cacti, and 

 rejoices when he sees the leaves of his opuntias thickly strewn 

 with this valuable parasite. The female, who from her form 

 and habits might not unaptly be called the tortoise of the insect 

 world, is much larger than the winged 

 male, and of a dark-brown colour, with 

 two light spots on the back, covered with a 

 white powder. She uses her little legs 



f' 1\ ^ only during her first youth, but soon she 



/ \ sucks herself fast, and henceforward re- 



' » mains immovably attached to the spot she 



has chosen, while her mate continues to 

 lead a wandering life. While thus fixed 

 like an oyster, she swells or grows to such a 

 cocHTXEAL. slzc that shc looks more like a seed or berry 



than an insect ; and her legs, antennae, and 

 proboscis, concealed by the expanding body, can hardly be 

 distinguished by the naked eye. Grreat care is taken to kill 

 the insects before the young escape from the eggs, as they have 

 then the greatest weight, and are most impregnated with 

 colouring matter. They are detached by a blunt knife dipped 

 in boiling water to kill them, and then dried in the sun, when 

 tliey have the appearance of small, dry, shrivelled berries, of 

 a deep-brown purple or mulberry colour, with a white matter 

 between the wrinkles. The collecting takes place three times 

 a year in the plantations, where the insect, improved by human 

 care, is nearly twice as large as the wild coccus, which in Mexico 

 is gathered six times in the same period. Although the 

 collecting of the cochineal is exceedingly tedious — about 

 70,000 insects going to a single pound — yet, considering the 

 liigh price of the article, its rearing would be very lucrative, if 

 both the insect and the plant it feeds upon were not liable to 

 the ravages of many diseases, and the attacks of numerous 

 enemies. 



The conquest of Mexico by Cortez first made the Spaniards 

 acquainted with cochineal. They soon learnt to value it as 

 one of the most important products of their new empire, and in 

 order to secure its monopoly, prohibited, under pain of death, 

 the exportation of the insect, and of the equally indigenous 



