62 GRAMMAR OF ENTOMOLOGY. 



CHAPTER XII. 



HISTORY OF THE COCCUS OF THE VINE. 



Class Hcmiptera, ■ Genus Coccus. 



Order Coccites. | Species Vitis. 



195. Our vines are often disfigured, and some- 

 times rendered unfruitful, by an insect which is 

 called the vine-gall, or vine-coccus. The injury it 

 causes to the vines is occasioned by perforating the 

 tender rind, and thus causing the sap to flow, 

 or, as the gardeners usually term it, making the 

 vines bleed. 



196. Our climate is not usually hot enough for 

 this insect to increase to any alarming extent on 

 our out-door vines ; but in hot-houses it breeds 

 in incredible numbers, often doing great mischief : 

 sometimes it is so abundant that the young shoots 

 appear to be covered with white cotton, which is 

 in reality a resinous gum, exuded from the cocci 

 in a filamentous form. 



• From RusTicus' MS. with pcnni^ision. 



