272 DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 



purpose squat down for hours together beside one plant ; and 

 notwithstanding the high price of the cochineal, it is to be 

 doubted if the cultivation would be profitable were the value 

 of labour more considerable. 



The cochineal insects are killed either by throwing them 

 into boiling water, by exposing them in heaps to the sun, 

 or by placing them in the ovens ( Temazealli) used for vapour 

 baths. The last of these methods, which is least in use, pre- 

 serves the whitish powder on the body of the cochineal, 

 which, being thus less subject to the adulterations so often 

 practised by the Indians, bears a higher price both in America 

 and Europe.^ 



The quantity annually exported from South America was 

 said by Humboldt to be at the time he wrote 32,000 arrobas, 

 there worth 500,040/. sterling^; — a vast amount to arise 

 from so small an insect, and well calculated to show us the 

 absurdity of despising any animals on account of their mi- 

 nuteness. So important was the acquisition of this insect 

 regarded, that the Court of Directors of the East India 

 Company formerly offered a reward of 6000/. to any one who 

 should introduce it into India, where hitherto the Company 

 had only succeeded in procuring from Brazil the wild kind 

 producing the sylvestre cochineal, which is of very inferior 

 value. The true cochineal insect and the Cactus on which it 

 feeds are said to have been of late years successfully introduced 

 into Spain and the new French colony of Algiers, and now 

 exist both in the stores of the Jardin des Plantes at Paris, 

 and in those of King Leopold at Claremont.^ 



Lac is the produce of an insect formerly supposed to be a 

 kind of ant or bee*, but now ascertained to be a species of 

 Coccus; and it is collected from various trees in India, where 

 it is found so abundantly, that, were the consumption ten 

 times greater than it is, it could be readily supplied. This 

 substance is made use of in that country in the manufacture 

 of beads, rings, and other female ornaments. Mixed with 



1 Humboldt's Political Essay on New Spain, iii. 72 — 79. 



2 Ibid, iii, 64. — Dr. Bancroft estimated the annual consumption of cochineal 

 in Great Britain at about 750 bags, or 150,000 lbs. ; worth 375,000^. 



3 Trans. Ent. Soc. Land. iii. proc. ix. Lesser, L. ii. 165. 



