COCCUS CACTI. 205 



by two long diverging setae ; luings large, white, 

 crossed over the abdomen ; female nearly twice as 

 large as the male, deep brown, covered with a white 

 farina ; antenna short ; body flatted below, convex ; 

 feet short. 



Coccus Cacti; Lin. De Geer, Fahr.;. Thiery de Menonv. Traite de la Cult, du 

 Nopal. Latr. Hist. Nat. des Fourm. y et Rec. de Mem. p. 320. 



La Cochenelle du nopal, Fr. ; Die Koschenille, Ger.; Ko$kenillen,Dan. ctSwed. 



Cochineal, so highly prized for its valuable properties in pro- 

 ducing the dye which bears its name, is a native of South America. 

 It comes to us in the form of a reddish grain, covered with a 

 white powder or bloom, and feeds on various species of Cactus or 

 Indian fig. In Mexico, where the insect is domesticated and 

 reared with the greatest care, the plant is called Nopal, and has 

 been generally supposed to be the Cactus cochinilifer, but accord- 

 ing to Humboldt, is unquestionably a distinct species, to which he 

 has given the name of C. Bonplandii. The female, which alone 

 is valuable for its dye, is about one-eighth of an inch in length j 

 the body is depressed, downy, transversely rugose, of a purplish 

 red colour, flat below and convex above ; the head is furnished 

 with a rostrum rising from the breast, with a vagina and setse ; 

 the legs are six in number, short and black. The male is a very 

 small fly, with long filiform autennee, and two erect wings ; the 

 body is of a deep red colour, with two very long setse proceeding 

 from the apex of the abdomen. No good figure and description 

 of this interesting species has yet been published. 



Cochineal is chiefly cultivated in the intendency of Oaxaca; 

 and some plantations contain 50 or 60,000 nopals in lines, each 

 being kept about four feet high for more easy access in collecting 

 the dye. The cultivators prefer the most prickly varieties of the 

 plant, as affording protection to the cochineal from insects ; to 

 prevent which from depositing their eggs in the flower or fruit, 

 both are carefully cut off. The greatest quantity, however, of 

 cochineal employed in commerce, is produced in small nopaleries 

 belonging to Indians of extreme poverty, called Nopaleros. They 



