for attacking convoys and caravans. The compara- 

 - of Chivn-cltan;/, through which the An-niny river 



e of the egg culture, but there are besides many out- 



. cannot be produced in 

 the districts where the insect is propagated, and conversely that repro- 

 duction does not take place in regions which are favourable to the 

 deposit of wax, has led hi 1 the plentiful excretion 



results from a diseased state of the in.-ect, broughl about by its trans- 



iucompalibilily ofwav-makh g with breeding is accounted for in a much 



■el. 



Dpped off and 1 



•oiled: 



It 





nvi 



i. ' lint in Chi 



n'-jl) 



-7/,'/ 



2, m 



■(•!; 



<'t"'of rliu-zL 







,.,',,,! 







rhin 



,,-vh 



7 Us, 





awes as in the egg dis 



trict 



of a 



are very wilii; ftboul their new industry, I easily 



acquired a plentiful stock of fact and fiction. My second visit was in 

 May 1878. when the eggs had just been placed on the trees. The eggs 

 are contained in a spherical gall of a dark brown colour, a quarter of an 

 inch to three-eighths in diameter, which is thin, hard, and brittle in <nh- 



more or less circular npmim: <»r iuva'eh at, the ,„,;„( where the -all" 

 was detached from the tree on which it was originally formed. Of such 



powder resembling wheat-Hour, but coarser, which acquires a yellow 

 tinge as the time approaches for the birth of the insects. Each grain 

 of this is an egg. In most of the galls which I examined the eggs 

 were nearly all hatched, and the brood was actively crawlimr out 

 through the circular breach. Every gall must certainly yield, on a 

 moderate estimate, more than a thousand insect -, for when these first 

 march out into the world they are so exceedingly small tlial the un- 

 assisted eye can hardly detect individuals except under favourable con- 

 ditions of light and colour. Close and sustained scrutiny with a strong 

 magnifying glass shows that they have six leg3 and a pair of antennae, 

 and that they are of two kinds, white and red, which it may be assumed 

 are the two sexes. The white are reported to grow larger than the 

 red, ultimately reaching the size of a Sesanmm grain. I suppose the 

 red kind to be th« female. What appears Co be tier alimentary canal ie 

 perceptible through her back, bur the nude ; - tuoie opaque. 



The natives affirm that one reason why the egg-galls must be carried 

 with all speed to the wax country is to forestall the ravages of the 

 " irav-diK/," a parasite which, in their opinion, is formed in the gall 

 along with the nascent insects, and soon devours them unless they are 

 forthwith put to the trees. I was very eager to discover this insect 

 cuckoo, but I found a specimen without any search in the first gall J 



* "Gall" is nn ina'vurnt.Mrnn in thi« npplionti.m, but if r-erv^ the purpow of 



