ON THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE LAC INSECT. 203 



These tufts, which, previous to impregnation, consisted of but a few fila- 

 ments from each aperture, and thus in no way impeded the functions of 

 the male, had so increased immediately after impregnation (that is, by the 

 20th of September), that every part of the branch covered with new lac 

 was rendered white by it ; and although there were still a few females 

 which were not enveloped by it (and probably, therefore, were not impreg- 

 nated), yet, for the most part, they were thickly covered by this cottony 

 substance ; and the few remaining males that were present were so inex- 

 tricably entangled in it, and prevented from coming into contact with the 

 females by it, that, together with the presence of dead ones, also entangled 

 in the mass, it may be inferred that this rapid evolution of the cotton-like 

 substance at once indicates the death-season of the males, and that impreg- 

 nation has been fully performed. One other observation I would add, which 

 is more practical than scientific — viz., that, to obtain as much resin and as 

 much colouring matter as possible, the gathering of lac should take place 

 towards the end of May, or the beginning of June, just before the evolution 

 of the young, which, as will have been seen above, carry away with them 

 the greater part of the colouring matter. In Ure's " Dictionary of Arts 

 and Manufactures," which contains by far the best and least incorrect account 

 of this insect that I have met with, it is stated that the evolution of the 

 young takes place in " November or December," and afterwards in " October 

 or November," while the lac is gathered twice a year, in " March and Octo- 

 ber." It is also stated in the same article that the male insect has " four 

 wings," and that there is one to every 5,000 females ; while we are not .a 

 little surprised to see in P. Gervais and Van Beneden's " Zoologie Medicale " 

 (1859), p. 874, that lac " exudes from certain trees through the punctures 

 which have been made by the females." It was this and sundry other state- 

 ments, together with seeing that the insect could be examined successfully 

 only in the country where it lives, which induced me to avail myself of the 

 opportunities presented to me of obtaining as much of its history as I could 

 for publication. On the 25th of June I received the branch of the custard- 

 apple tree with the living matured lac insect on it, in its incrustation. 

 About the 5th of July, the young or larvae, about l-40th of an inch lon°-, 

 began to issue. On the 14th of August all were fixed to, and progressively 

 enlarging in, incrustation, on the custard-apple tree. On the 8th of Septem- 

 ber the males were leaving their incrustations and impregnating the females, 

 each sex being now about l-27th of an inch long ; and on the 20th of Sep- 

 tember the females were almost all concealed under an exuberant evolution 

 of the white cottony substance (which we now know to be the attenuated 

 extremities of the trachea?, covered with a white powder), with a single 

 male insect here and there alive, and many dead ones entangled in it. 



