DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 221 



which bores to the pith of certain trees ; and says that it produces a suffi- 

 cient supply for the whole empire, the different provinces of which are 

 furnished from Xantung, where it is bred in the greatest perfection, wiih a 

 stock of eggs.^ 'A very different origin, liowever, is assigned to the Pc-la 

 by Sir George Staunton, who informs us that it is produced by a species 

 of Cicada (Flnia limbata), which in its larva state feeds upon a plant like 

 the privet, strewing upon the stem a powder, which when collected forms 

 the wax." But as he merely states that this powder was "supposed" to 

 form it, and does not himself appear to have made the experiment of dis- 

 solving it in oil, it is most probable that his information was incorrect, and 

 that Grosier's statement is the true one. 



This probability is nearly converted into certainty by the fact that many 

 Aphides and Cocci secrete a wax-like substance, and that a kind of wax 

 very analogous to the Pc-la, and of the same class with bees' wax, only 

 containing more carbon, is actually produced in India by a nondescript 

 species of Coccus remarkable for providing itself with a small quantity of 

 honey like our bees. This substance, for s[)ecimens of which I am indebted 

 to the kindness of Sir Joseph Banks, was first noticed by Dr. Anderson, 

 and called by him white lac. It could be obtained in any quantity from 

 the neighborhood of Madras, and at a much cheaper rate than bees' wax : 

 but the experiments of Dr. Pearson do not afford much ground for suppos- 

 ing that it can be advantageously employed in making candles.^ De 

 Azara speaks of a firm white wax apparently similar, and the produce of 

 an insect of the same tribe, which is collected in South America in the 

 form of pearl-like globules from the small branches of the (^uahiramy, a 

 small shrub two or three feet high.'* 



Insects in some countries not only furnish the natives with wax but 

 with resin, which is used instead of tar for their ships. Molina informs us 

 that, at Coquimbo in Chili, resin, either the product of an insect or the 

 consequence of an insect's biting off the buds of a particular species of 

 Origanum, is collected in large quantities. The insect in question is a 

 small smooth red caterpillar about half an inch long, which changes into a 

 yellowish moth with black stripes upon the wings (Phal. ccraria Molina). 

 Early in the spring vast numbers of these caterpillars collect on the branches 

 of the Chila, where they form their cells of a kind of soft white wax or 

 resin, in which they undergo their transformations. This wax, which is at 

 first very white, but by degrees becomes yellow and finally brown, is col- 

 lected in autumn by the inhabitants, who boil it in water, and make it up 

 into little cakes for market. 



Honey, another well-known product of insects, has lost much of its 

 importance since the discovery of sugar; yet at the present day, whether 

 considered as a delicious article of food, or the base of a wholesome 

 vinous beverage of home manufacture, it is of no mean value even in this 

 country ; and in many inland parts of Europe, where its saccharine sub- 

 stitute is much dearer than with us, few articles of rural economy, not of 

 primary importance, would be dispensed with more reluctantly. In the 

 Ukraine some of the peasants have 400 or 500 bee-hives, and make more 



» Quoted in Soulhey's Thalaba, ii. 166. « Embassy to China, i. 400. 



3 Phil. Trans. 1794. xxi. * Voyage dans I'Amer. Merid. i. 164. 



* Molina's Chili, i, 174. 



19* 



