ANALOGY OF THE COCCI TO THE CASSID^E. 140 



is remarkably beautiful. However destructive these 

 insects may be to our fruit trees, they seldom attack 

 such as are in a sound and healthy state. The Coccus 

 cacti, or cochineal, has long been celebrated for the beau- 

 tiful scarlet colour it imparts by dying, and which forms 

 such an important article of commerce with the Western 

 World. We may here advert to a common error, still 

 prevalent among unscientific persons, who suppose that 

 the cochineal dye is extracted from a berry. This lias 

 originated from the appearance of the animal when dead: 

 the female, in its full-grown pregnant or torpid state, 

 swells to such a size, that the legs, antennae, and pro- 

 boscis become so small in respect to the rest of the 

 animal, as hardly to be discovered, except by a good eye, 

 or by the assistance of a glass ; so that, on a general 

 view, it bears a greater resemblance to a berry than to an 

 insect. We may also advert to another error, viz. that 

 the cochineal was a species of Coccinella, or ladybird. 

 This seems to have taken its rise from specimens of the 

 Coccinella Cacti being sometimes accidentally intermixed 

 with the cochineal in gathering and drying. 



(139.) The analogy which this group bears to the 

 Cassidce, the tortoises, and other onisciform types, has 

 already been brought before the reader; but, if he wish to 

 have this resemblance placed in the strongest light, let him 

 look to the figure of the Coccus cataphractus of Dr. Shaw *, 

 where he will see even the plates which compose the shell 

 of the tortoise, actually defined in the most exact manner 

 upon this pigmy representative of the chelonian reptiles. 

 The whole animal, as Dr. Shaw observes, " being coated 

 on the upper parts, in the most curious manner, in a 

 complete suit of milk-white armour, as if cased in 

 ivory." Again, in allusion to the resemblance which the 

 Coccides have to a wood-louse, he remarks, that " their 

 general appearance is very much that of an Oniscns, or 

 millipede ; the antennoe in both having a strong resem- 

 blance to a pair of forceps, being each curved inwards 



* Nat. Mis. vol. v. 

 ■L 3 



