INSECTS. 
231 
LETTER LIII. To the Hon. DAINES BARRINGTON. 
As I have sometimes known you make enquiries about several 
kinds of insects, I shall here send you an account of one sort 
which T little expected to have found in this kingdom. I had 
often observed that one particular part of a vine growing on the 
walls of my house was covered in the autumn with a black dust- 
like appearance, on which the flies fed eagerly ; and that the 
shoots and leaves thus affected did not thrive ; nor did the fruit 
ripen. To this substance I applied my glasses ; but could not 
discover that it had any thing to do with animal life, as I at first 
expected : but, upon a closer examination behind the larger 
boughs, we were surprised to find that they were coated over 
with husky shells, from whose sides proceeded a cotton-like sub- 
stance, surrounding a multitude of eggs. This curious and un- 
common production put me upon recollecting what I have heard 
and read concerning the coccus vitis viniferce of Linnaeus, which, 
in the south .of Europe, infests many vines, and is a horrid and 
loathsome pest. As soon as I had turned to the accounts given 
of this insect, I saw at once that it swarmed on my vine ; and did 
not appear to have been at all checked by the preceding winter, 
which had been uncommonly severe. 
Not being then at all aware that it had any thing to do with 
England, I was much inclined to think that it came from Gibral- 
tar among the many boxes and packages of plants and birds 
which I had formerly received from thence ; and especially as 
the vine infested grew immediately under my study-window, 
where I usually kept my specimens. True it is that I had re- 
ceived nothing from thence for some years : but as insects, we 
know, are conveyed from one country to another in a very unex- 
pected manner, and have a wonderful power of maintaining their 
existence till they fall into a nidus proper for their support and 
increase, I cannot but suspect still that these cocci came to me 
originally from Andalusia. Yet, all the while, candour obhges 
me to confess that Mr. Lightfoot has \vTitten me word that he 
once, and but once, saw these insects on a vine at Weymouth in 
Dorsetshire ; which, it is here to be observed, is a sea-port town 
to which the coccus might be conveyed by shipping. 
As many of my readers may possibly never have heard of this 
