(J74 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO I762. 



of the Gardenia ; and afterwards to consider of the properest place for planting 

 and cultivating them for so valuable an end. 



cm. Of the Male and Female Cochineal Insects,* that breed on the Cactus 



Opimtia, or Indian Fig, in South Carolina and Georgia. By John Ellis, 



Esq. p 661. 



Mr. E. hearing that this insect bred in great abundance on the Cactus 

 Opuntiaof Linnaeus's Species Plantarum, p. 468, in South Carolina and Georgia, 

 where it is a native and grows in great plenty, as well as on the Cactus Coccin- 

 ellifer of the same author, which grows in Mexico, and has been for many years 

 introduced into Jamaica, he wrote to Dr. Alexander Garden, of Charles Town, 

 South Carolina, to send him some of the joints of the Cactus Opuntia, with the 

 insects on it; which he did the latter end of the year 1757- These specimens 

 were fiill of the nests of this insect, in which it appeared in its various states, 

 from the most minute, when it walks about, to the state when it becomes fixed, 

 and wrapt up in a fine web, which it spins about itself. 



The female (which was here alive and in plenty) is well described by Mons. 

 Reaumur, Dr. Brown of Jamaica, and by Dr. Linnaeus, in his System of the 

 animal kingdom, under the title of Coccus Cacti Coccinelliferi, p. 457, N° 17> 

 from a living insect sent him from Surinam, by Mr. Rolander, in the year 1756 ; 

 but neither Reaumur, Brown, nor Linnaeus had ever seen the male. As this ge- 

 nus of insects is placed by Dr. Linnaeus under the hemipeterae or half winged, 

 it may be necessary to know that he comprehends in this class not only those 

 whose wings are half covered with a crustaceous case, but such also as have 

 wings only on one sex. 



In order to find out the male fly, Mr. E. examined all the webs in t4iese speci- 

 mens, besides a large parcel which the Dr. had sent picked off' from the plants 

 in Carolina ; and at last discovered 3 or 4 minute dead flies with white wings ; 

 these he moistened in weak spirit of wine, and examining them in the microscope, 

 he discovered their bodies to be of a bright red colour, which convinced him of 

 their being the true male Cochineal insect : to be confirmed in his opinion, he im- 

 mediately communicated his discovery to Dr. Garden, which he accompanied 

 with an exact microscopical drawing, and desired he would send some account of 

 their ceconomy, with some male insects of his own collecting, which he was so 

 kind to do in the spring, with some observations on them, which are as follows. 



" In August 1759 I catched a male Cochineal fly, and examined it in your 

 aquatic microscope. It is seldom a male fly is met with. I imagine there may be 

 150 or .iOO females for one male. The male is a very active creature and well 



• It is to be observed that the species here described by Mr. Ellis, is not the true or genuine cochi- 

 i»eal cultivated in Meiico, but is very strongly allied to it, though of an inferior kind as to use. 



