1-*^ PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [anNO 1704. 



of blood-vessels lying in so narrow a compass, and that each egg receives its 

 nourishment and increase, as it certainly must, by a string or artery; and that 

 probably there are veins in every string for carrying on the circulation of the 

 blood; how then can we sufficiently admire the depth of Almighty wisdom, in 

 the structure of such animals. The shape of the eggs of the cochineal fly is 

 very like that of our hen eggs. js 



On viewing some of these embryos, after having divested them of the mem-j 

 brane or shell in which they were shut up, I observed on their head, a kind og 

 a tool or instrument, about a fifth part as long as the whole body of the animajf* 

 culum, and at the extremity a very slender point, something like that instrument 

 which those animalcula have that are found on currant bushes, &c. and by which 

 they get their food; and when they have so done, they clap it to their breasts 

 till they have occasion for it again. From whence I infer that the cochineal 

 flies also acquire their food after the same manner, viz. that they have no teeth' 

 to gnaw the leaves of the plant, as silk worms do, but that they only insinuate 

 their said instrument into the leaves, and after that manner get their nourish- 

 ment. And this notion seems to be supported by what an old Spaniard said, 

 viz. that these animalcula feed on the blossoms and fruits of the plant, and that 

 by those means they became red. From hence we may conclude, that the in- 

 sects do not hurt the leaves, fruits, nor even the blossoms of trees, as far as we 

 can discover ; which may also the better satisfy us, that the cochineal flies, with 

 the abovementioned instrument, by boring into the leaves, acquire both their 

 food and increase. 



We see, that in all small flies, that are produced from worms or maggots, 

 the smallest are always the males; and this rule holds good also in flies and lice, 

 among which also the hinder parts of their female bodies are always larger, by 

 reason of their being so often impregnated with eggs ; but when I had soaked 

 their trunks thoroughly in water, in order to some further inquiries, I then 

 imagined, that all the cochineal flies are females, and that hardly one fourth 

 part of them was arrived to their full growth, before their bodies are filled with 

 young. This position of mine, that all the cochineal flies are females, may 

 seem very surprising, and perhaps not meet with credit by those that maintain 

 there can be no animal generated without a copulation of njale and female; but 

 they would be of another opinion if they had seen the unspeakable number of 

 animalcula which last summer, 1703, infested the leaves of the lime-trees, or 

 those others that were found upon currant-trees, cherry-trees, or hazel-nut- 

 trees; all which animalcula bring forth live young; and these young ones being 

 very small, have their bodies full of other young, and are all females, and con- 

 sequently there is no copulation among them; these, when they are full grown,. 



