208 DIPLOLEPIS GALL/E TINCTORIiE. 



extracted by water ; lump-lac when melted and made into cakes ; 

 and shell-lac when strained and formed into transparent laminse. 

 It has hitherto been chiefly employed in the composition of var- 

 nishes, japanned ware, and sealing wax : but within these few 

 years it has been applied to a still more important purpose, origi- 

 nally suggested by Dr. Roxburgh— that of a substitute for cochineal 

 in dyeing scarlet. 



DIPLOLEPIS GALL^ TINCTORI^, 



Gall-nut Insect. 



Pl. XXVII. fig. 4. 



Order Hymenoptera. Family Diplolepid^e, Latr. 



Gen. Char. Antenna filiform, thicker towards their 

 extremities, of 15 joints in the male ; antenna in the 

 female with 14 joints; palpi very short, of 4 joints, 

 the last obconic ; abdomen with the inferior part com- 

 pressed, triangular-ovoid ; inferior wings without dis- 

 tinct nervurcs ; upper ivings with the marginal cells 

 linear-lanceolate. 



Spec. Char. Body pale, testaceous, clothed with a very 

 short silky pubescence ; abdomen shining and blackish 

 at the base ; upper ivings much larger than the infe- 

 rior ; legs rather short. 



Diplolepis g-allte tinctoricc ; Oliv. Ency. Melh. ; Latr . Hist. Nat. des Crust, et 

 Ins. xiii. 206 ; Steph. and Church. Med. Bot. iv. t. 152. 



Inhabits Asia, on the Quercus infectoria, and produces the nut- 

 galls of commerce. See " Medical Botany," vol. iv. art. 152. 



