i68 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 



True it is that I had received nothing from thence for some 

 years : but as insects, we know, are conveyed from one 

 country to another in a very unexpected manner, and have 

 a wonderful power of maintaining their existence till they 

 fall into a nidus proper for their support and increase, I 

 cannot but suspect still that these coed came to me originally 

 from Andalusia. Yet, all the while, candour obliges me to 

 confess that Mr. Lightfoot has written me word that he once, 

 and but once, saw these insects on a vine at Weymouth 

 in Dorsetshire ; which, it is here to be observed, is a 

 sea-port town to which the coccus might be conveyed by 

 shipping. 



As many of my readers may possibly never have heard 

 of this strange and unusual insect, I shall here transcribe 

 a passage from a natural history of Gibraltar, written by 

 the Reverend John White, late Vicar of Blackburn in Lanca- 

 shire, but not yet published : 



" In the year 1770 a vine, which grew on the east-side 

 of my house, and which had produced the finest crops of 

 grapes for years past, was suddenly overspread on all the 

 woody branches with large lumps of a white fibrous sub- 

 stance resembling spiders webs, or rather raw cotton. It 

 was of a very clammy quality, sticking fast to everything 

 that touched it, and capable of being spun into long 

 threads. At first I suspected it to be the product of spiders, 

 but could find none. Nothing was to be seen connected 

 with it but many brown oval husky shells, which by no means 

 looked like insects but rather resembled bits of the dry bark 

 of the vine. The tree had a plentiful crop of grapes set, 

 when this pest appeared upon it ; but the fruit was mani- 

 festly injured by this foul incumbrance. It remained all 

 the summer, still increasing, and loaded the woody and 

 bearing branches to a vast degree. I often pulled off great 

 quantities by handfuls ; but it was so slimy and tenacious 

 that it could by no means be cleared. The grapes never 

 filled to their natural perfection, but turned watery and 

 vapid. Upon perusing the works afterwards of M. de 

 Reaumur, I found this matter perfectly described and ac- 



