NATURALIST'S CABINET. 



Red fi'.id which contains the grubs. 



forms a complete cell for the i isect, which takes 

 place about the middle of March. The insect is 

 now, in appeatance, an oval smooth red bag, 

 without life, emarginated at the obtuse end, and 

 full of a beautiful red liquid. 



Twenty or thirty small oval eggs, or rather 

 young grubs, are to be -found in October and 

 November, within the red fluid of the mother. 

 When this fluid is all consumed the young in- 

 sects pierce a hole through the external cover- 

 ing, and walk off one by one, leaving their nidus 

 behind. 



These insects generally fix themselves in such 

 " numbers, and so close to each other, that scarcely 

 more than one female in six has room to com- 

 plete her cell: the others die, and become the 

 food of various insects. In the East Indies these 

 insects have the name of gum lac, and are prin- 

 cipally found on the trees of the uncultivated 

 mountains on both sides of the Ganges, where 

 nature has been so bountiful, that, were the con- 

 sumption many times greater than it now is, the 

 markets would be fully supplied. The only trou- 

 ble is in breaking down the branches and carry- 

 ing them to market. 



The American cochineal is a native of South 

 .America. This insect is convex, with legs of a 

 clear bright red, in both male and female, and 

 the antennae motiiliform or bead-like. The male 

 is a delicate and beajiiful insect, the colour of 

 *he whole body a bright red, nearly resembling 



