250 coccus. 



for their support ar>d increase, I cannot but suspect still that 

 these cocci came to me originally from Andalusia. Yet, all 

 the while, candour obliges me to confess, that Mr Lightfoot 

 has written me word, that he once, and but once, saw these 

 insects on a vine at Weymouth, in Dorsetshire ; which, it is 

 here to be observed, is a seaport town to which the coccus 

 might be conveyed by shipping. 



As many of my readers may possibly never have heard of 

 this strange and unusual insect, I shall here transcribe a passage 

 from a Natural History of Gibraltar, written by the Reverend 

 John White, late vicar of Blackburn, in Lancashire, but not 

 yet published : 



" In the year 1770, a vine, which grew on the east side of 

 my house, and which had produced the finest crops of grapes 

 for years past, was suddenly overspread, on all the woody 

 branches, with large lumps of a white fibrous substance, 

 resembling spiders' webs, or rather raw cotton. It was of a 

 very clammy quality, sticking fast to every thing that touched 

 it, and capable of being spun into long threads. At first I 

 suspected it to be the product of spiders, but could find none. 

 Nothing was to be seen connected with it, but many brown 

 oval husky shells, which by no means looked like insects, but 

 rather resembled bits of the dry bark of the vine. The tree 

 had a plentiful crop of grapes set, when this pest appeared 

 upon it ; but the fruit was manifestly injured by this foul 

 encumbrance. It remained all the summer, still increasing, 

 and loaded the woody and bearing branches to a vast degree. 

 I often pulled off great quantities by handfuls ; but it was so 

 slimy and tenacious that it could by no means be cleared. 

 The grapes never filled to their natural perfection, but turned 

 watery and vapid. Upon perusing the works afterwards of 

 M. de Reaumur, I found this matter perfectly described and 

 accounted for. Those husky shells which I had observed, 

 were no other than the female coccus, from whose sides this 

 cotton-like substance exudes, and serves as a covering and 

 security for their eggs," 



To this account I think proper to add, that, though the 

 female cocci are stationary, and seldom remove from the place 

 to which they stick, yet the male is a winged insect ; and that 

 the black dust which I saw was undoubtedly the excrement 

 of the females, which is eaten by ants as well as flies. Though 

 the utmost severity of our winter did not destroy tV ese insects, 



