138 THE INSECT WORLD. 
subject. These insects are gathered when the females are about 
to lay, that is, when a few young are hatched. It is when the 
females are gravid that they contain the greatest amount of 
colouring matter. When the harvest time has arrived, the 
rearers stretch out on the ground pieces of linen at the foot of the 
plants, and detach the cochineals from them, brushing the plants 
with a rather hard brush, or scraping them off with the blade of 
a blunt knife. 
If the season is favourable, the operation may be repeated three 
times in the course of a year in the same plantation. The insects 
thus collected are killed, by dipping into boiling water, being put 
into an oven, or by torrefying them on a plate of hot iron. The 
cochineals when withdrawn from the boiling water are placed 
upon drainers, first in the sun, then in the shade, then in an 
airy place. During their immersion in water they lose the white 
_ powder which covers them. In this state they are called in 
Mexico ronagridas. ‘Those which have been passed through the 
oven they call jaspeadas, and are of an ashy grey; those that 
are torrefied are black, and are called xegras. In commerce 
three sorts of cochineal are recognised ; first, the mastique (mes- 
téque), of a reddish colour, with a more or less abundant glaucous 
powder; secondly, the noire, which is large and of a blackish 
brown; thirdly, the sylvestre, which is, on the contrary, smaller 
and reddish. The latter is the least esteemed, and is gathered on 
wild cacti. 
Hach year there are imported into France 200,000 kilogrammes 
of cochineals, which represent a value of about three millions of 
francs. very one knows that it is from cochineal that carmine 
is made, a magnificent red frequently employed by painters. 
Lake carmine is another product obtained from the cochineal. 
And, lastly, scarlet is the powder of the cochineal precipitated by 
a salt of tin. 
Before the Mexican cochineal was known in Europe, the hermes, 
or Coccus ilicis, known still in commerce and by chemists under 
the names of Animal kermes, Vegetable kermes, and Scarlet seed, 
was used for the preparation of the carmine employed in the 
arts. ‘This cochineal lives by preference (at least, so it is sup- 
posed) on the evergreen oak (Quercus ilex); whence its specific 
name. 
