160 INSECT MANUFACTURES. 



The following figure of the soap insect (Carabus 

 saponarius), is copied from M. Olivier's large work 

 on insects. 



Another useful insect substance is a kind of 

 resin, or more properly speaking, wax, which 

 by adulteration with a resinous substance is 

 made heavier for the market. This is found in 

 the province of Coquimbo, South America, and 

 is the production of a caterpillar, which feeds on 

 a shrub called chilca, a species of origanum. The 

 caterpillars are of a red colour, and about half an 

 inch in length. They appear in great numbers in 

 the beginning of the spring on the branches of the 

 chilca, where they form their cells of a kind of soft 

 wax. In these they become changed into a small 

 yellowish moth, with black stripes upon the wings. 

 The wax is at first very white, by degrees becomes 



