coc 
c o c 
coc 
the coccinella, the most curious is the white 
hedgehog ; a name given it by M. de Reau- 
mur, on account ot the singularity of its fi- 
gure, and the tufts of hair which render it re- 
markable. It seeks its food on the leaves of 
trees. After a fortnight it settles on one spot, 
and, without parting with its fur, turns to a 
chrysalis ; three weeks after which it becomes 
a coccinella. The slough appears nowise 
impaired by its transformation. M. de Reau- 
mur has observed it on a plum-tree. It is 
likewise found upon the rose-tree. When the 
coccinella first arrives at the state of perfec- 
tion, the colours of its elytra are very paie, 
nearly bordering upon white or cream-co- 
lour ; and its elytra are very soft and tender, 
but soon grow hard, and change to very 
lively brilliant colours. Their eggs are of 
an oblong form, and of the colour of amber. 
1 his is not the cochineal insect : for that see 
Coccus. 
COCCOLOBO, a genus of the trigynia or- 
der, in the octandria class of plants, and in 
the natural method ranking under the 1 2th 
order, holoraceas. The calyx is quinquepar- 
tite and coloured ; there is no corolla ; the 
berry is formed of the calyx, and is mono- 
spermous. There are 19 species: that called 
uvifera, or sea-side grape (see Plate Nat. Hist, 
tig. 129). It grows upon the sandy shores of 
most of the \\ est India islands; where it sends 
up many woody stems, eight or ten feet high, 
covered with brown smooth bark, and fur- 
nished with thick, veined, shining, orbicular 
leaves, live or six inches diameter, standing 
upon short footstalks. 
COCCULUS Indicus, the name of a poi- 
sonous berry, too frequently mixed with malt 
liquors, in order to make them intoxicating ; 
but this practice is expressly forbidden by 
act of parliament. It is the fruit of the mo- 
nospermum coqculus. Fishermen have a way 
of mixing it with paste ; this the fish swallow 
greedily, and are thereby rendered lifeless for 
a time, and lioat on the water. The old wo- 
men use it with staves-acre, for destroying 
lice in children’s heads. 
COCCUS, in zoology, a genus of insects 
belonging to the order of hemiptera. The 
rostrum proceeds from the breast ; the belly 
is bristly behind ; the wings of the male are 
erect ; and the female has no wings. The 
species are 22, denominated principally from 
tue plants they frequent. The most remark- 
able species are, 
1. The coccus hesperidum, or greenhouse 
bug, which is oval, oblong, of a brown co- 
lour, covered with a kind of varnish : it lias 
six legs, with a notch and four bristles at the 
tail. It infests orange-trees and other similar 
plants in greenhouses. When young it 
runs upon the trees ; but afterwards fixes on 
some leaf, where it hatches an infinity of 
eggs, and dies. The male is a very small 
fly. 
2. The coccus phalarides. The male of this 
species is small ; its antenna: are long for its 
size ; the feet and body are of a reddish co- 
lour, nearly pink, and sprinkled with a little 
white powder. Its two wings, and the four 
threads of its tail, are snow-white ; and of 
those threads two are longer than the rest. !i 
is to be lound upon the species of gfamen 
which Linnasus calls phalaris. The female 
contrives, along the stalks of that dog-grass, 
littel nests, of a white cottony substance, in 
which she deposits her eggs. The small 
threads of her tail are scarcely perceptible. 
3. The coccus cacti (see PL Nat. Hist. fig. 
130, 131), a native of the warmer parts of 
America, is the famous cochineal animal, so 
highly valued in every part of the world for the 
incomparable beauty of its red colour, which 
it readily communicates to wool and silk, but 
with much more difficulty to linen and cot- 
ton. This insect, like others, is of two sexes, 
but exceedingly dissimilar in their appear- 
ance. The female, which alone is valuable 
for its colour, is ill-shaped, tardy, and stupid : 
its eyes, mouth, and antennae, are fixed so 
deep, and are so concealed in the folds of the 
skin, that it is impossible to distinguish them 
without a microscope. The male is very 
scarce, and is sufficient for 300 females or 
more: it is active, small, and slender, in 
comparison with the female ; its neck is nar- 
rower than the head, and still narrower than 
the rest of the body. 
The cochineal insect may, in some circum- 
stances, be compared to the silkworm, par- 
ticularly in the manner of depositing its eggs. 
The insects destined for this purpose are 
taken at a proper time of their growth, and 
put into a box well closed, and lined with a 
coarse cloth, lest any of them should be lost ; 
and in this confinement they lay their eggs 
and die. The box is kept close shut till the 
time of placing the eggs on the nopal, when, 
if any motion is perceived, it is a sufficient in- 
dication that the animalcule has life, though 
the egg is so minute as hardly to be perceiv- 
ed ; and this is the seed placed on the foliage 
of the cactus cochenilifer, or Indian fig, 
known to the Spaniards by the name of no- 
pal, the quantity contained in the shell of a 
hen’s egg being sufficient for covering a whole 
plant. At Oaxaca Cochineal insects are ga- 
thered in large quantities, and form a branch 
of commerce ; the cultivation of these little 
creatures being there the chief employment 
of the Indians. In trade four sorts of cochi- 
neal are distinguished, mastique, campes- 
chane, tetraschale, and Sylvester; of which 
the first is accounted the best, and the last 
the worst. Its principal consumption is 
among the dyers. 
4. 'Fhe coccus ilicis, or that forming the 
kermes grains, inhabits the quercus coecifera 
of the southern parts of Europe. Both an- 
tients and moderns seem to have had very 
confused notions concerning the origin and 
nature of the kermes ; some considering it as 
a fruit, without a just knowledge of the tree 
which produced it ; others taking it for an 
excrescence formed by the puncture of a 
particular tiy, the same as the common gall 
observed upon oaks ; but it was finally disco- 
vered that the kermes is in reality nothing 
else but the body of an insect transformed 
into the resemblance of a grain, berry, or 
husk, according to the course of nature. 
The progress of this transformation must be 
considered at three different seasons. In the 
first stage, at the beginning of March, an ani- 
malcule, no larger than a grain of millet, 
scarcely able to crawl, is perceived sticking 
to the branches of the tree, where it fixes it- 
self, and soon becomes immoveable : at this 
period it grows most, and appears to swell and 
thrive with the sustenance- it draws in by de, 
grees. At the second stage, in April, its 
growth is completed ; its shape is then round, 
and about the size of a pea : it has then ac- 
quired more strength, and the down which 
covered it is changed into dust ; and seems to 
be nothing but a husk or a capsule, full of a 
reddish juice, not unlike discoloured blood. 
Its tifird state is towards the end of May, 
when the husk appears replete with small 
eggs, less than the seed of a poppy. These 
are properly ranged under the belly of the 
inseet, progressively placed in the nest of 
down that covers its body, which it withdraws 
in proportion to the number of eggs. After 
this work is performed it soon dies, though it 
still adheres to its position, rendering a fur- 
ther service to its progeny, and shielding 
them from the inclemency of the weather, or 
the hostile attacks of an enemy. In a good 
season they multiply exceedingly, laying 
from 1800 to 2000 eggs, which produce the 
same number of animalcules. In France 
poor people gather the kermes, letting their 
nails grow in order to pick them off with 
greater facility. 
5. The coccus lacca, or gum-lac animal, 
is a native of the East Indies. This species 
traverse the branches of the trees upon- 
which thev' were produced, for some time, 
and then fix themselves upon the succu- 
lent extremities of the young branches. Bv 
the middle of January they are all fixed 
in their proper situations ; and appear as 
plump as before, but show no other marks 
of life. The limbs, antennas, and setae of 
the tail, are no longer to be seen. Around 
their edges they are environed with a spis- 
sid subpellucid liquid, which seems to :,lue 
them to the branch: it is the gradual "ac- 
cumulation of this liquid which forms a 
complete cell for each insect, and is what is 
called gum-lac. About the middle of March 
the cells are completely formed, and the in- 
sect is in appearance an oval, smooth, red 
bag-, without life, about the size of a small co- 
chineal insect, emarginated at the obtuse 
end, full ot a beautiful red liquid. In Octo- 
ber and November we find about 20 or 30 
°val eggs, or rather young grubs, within the 
red fluid ot the mother. \V hen this fluid is 
all expended the young insects pierce a hole 
through the back of their mother, and walk 
oft one by .one, leaving their exuviae behind, 
which is that white membranous substance 
found in the empty cells of the stick-lac. 
The insects are the inhabitants of four trees : 
1. Ficus religiosa, Linnari ; 2. Ficus indica, 
Linna-i; 3. Plaso, Hortus Malabaricus ; and 
4. Rhanmus jujuba, Linnafi. The insects 
generally fix themselves so close together, 
and in such numbers, that scarcely one in six 
can have room to complete her cell : the 
others die, and are eaten up by various in- 
sects. The extreme branches appear as if 
they were covered with a red dust, and their 
sap is so much exhausted, that they wither, 
and produce no fruit ; the leaves drop off, or 
turn to a dirty black colour. A red medici- 
nal gum is produced by incision from the 
plaso tree, so similar to the gum-lac, that it 
may readily betaken for the same substance. 
Hence it is probable that those insects have 
little trouble in animalizing the sap of these 
trees in the formation oi their ceils. The 
gum-lac of this country is principally 
found upon the uncultivated mountains oil 
both sides the Ganges, where the only trou- 
ble in procuring it is in breaking down the 
branches, and carrying them to market. The 
lac is of a deep red’ colour. 
