coccus. 287 



LIII. 



As I have sometimes known you make inquiries 

 about several kinds of insects, I shall here send 

 you an account of one sort which I little expected 

 to have found in this kingdom. .1 had often 

 observed that one particular part of a vine, grow- 

 ing on the walls of my house, was covered in the 

 autumn with a black, dust-like appearance, on 

 which the flies fed eagerly ; and that the shoots 

 and leaves thus affected did not thrive, nor did 

 the fruit ripen. To this substance I applied my 

 glasses; but could not discover that it had any 

 thing to do with animal life, as I at first expected : 

 but, upon a closer examination behind the larger 

 boughs, we were surprised to find that they were 

 coated over with husky shells, from whose sides 

 proceeded a cotton-like substance, surrounding a 

 multitude of eggs. This curious and uncommon 

 production put me upon recollecting what I have 

 heard and read concerning the coccus vitis vinifer<e 

 of Linnaeus, which, in the south of Europe, infests 

 many vines, and is an horrid and loathsome pest. 

 As soon as I had turned to the accounts given of 

 this insect, I saw at once that it swarmed on my 

 vine ; and did not appear to have been at all 

 checked by the preceding whiter, which had been 

 uncommonly severe. 



Not being then at all aware that it had any 

 thing to do with England, I was much inclined 

 to think that it came from Gibraltar among the 

 many boxes and packages of plants and birds 

 which I had formerly received from thence ; and 

 especially as the vine infested grew immediately 

 under my study window, where I usually kept 

 my specimens. True it is, that I had received 



