INSECTA—COCHINEAL. 835 
yellow, with longitudina: red stripes. This beautiful insect is a native of 
Surmam and many other parts of South America, and during the night 
diffuses so strong a phosphoric splendor from its head or lantern, that it may be 
employed for the purpose of a candle or torch; and it is said that three or 
four of these insects tied to the top of a stick, are frequently used by travel 
lers for that purpose. A single one gives light enough to enable a person to 
read. 
THE COCHINEAL! 
Tuts insect is of an oval form, of the size of a small pea, with six feet, 
and a snout or trunk. It brings forth its young alive, and is nourished by 
sucking the juice of the plant. Its body consists of several rings; and 
when it is once fixed on the plant, it continues immoveable, being subject to 
no change. Some pretend there are two sorts, the one domestic, which is 
best, and the other wild, that is, of a vivid color; however, they appear to 
be the same; with only this difference, that the wild feed upon uncultivated 
trees, without any assistance; whereas, the domestic is carefully, at a stated 
season, removed to cultivated trees, where it feeds upon a purer juice. Those 
who take care of these insects, place them on the prickly pear-plant, ina 
certain order, and are very industrious in defending them from other insects; 
for if any other kind comes among them, they take care to brush them off 
with foxes’ tails. Towards the end of the year, when the rains and cold 
weather are coming on, which are fatal to these insects, they take off the 
leaves or branches, covered with the cochineal that have not attained their 
utmost degree of perfection, and keep them in their houses till winter is past. 
These leaves are very thick and juicy, and supply them with nourishment 
while they remain within doors. When the milder weather returns, and 
these animals are about to exclude their young, the natives make them 
nests, like those of birds, but less, of tree-moss, or soft hay, or the down of 
cocoa-nuts, placing twelve in every nest. These they fix on the thorns of 
the prickly pear-plant, and in three or four days’ time they bring forth their 
young, which leave their nests in a few days, and creep upon the branches 
of the plant, till they find a proper place to rest in. 
When the native Americans have gathered the cochineal, they put them 
into holes in the ground, where they kill them with boiling water, and after- 
wards dry them inthe sun, or in an oven, or lay them upon hot plates. 
From the various methods of killing them, arise the different colors which 
they appear in, when brought to us. While they are living, they seem ta 
be sprinkled over with a white powder, which they lose as soon as the boil 

—_— 
1 Coccus cacti, Lin. 
