io8 o Mr. Saunders’s Account of the 
the Rhamnus. The fly is nourifhed by the tree, and there 
depofits its eggs, which nature has provided it with the 
means of defending from external injury by a collection of 
this lac, evidently ferving the twofold purpofe of a nidus and 
covering to the ovum and inleCt in its firft ftage, and food for 
the maggot in its more advanced Rate. The lac is formed into 
complete cells, finifhed with as much regularity and art as a 
honey-comb, but differently arranged. The flies are invited 
to depofit their eggs on the branches of the tree, by befmearing 
them with fome of the frefh lac fteeped in water, which 
attraCls the fly, and gives a better and larger crop. 
The lac is collected twice a year, in the months of February 
* 
and Auguft. 
I have examined the egg of the fly with a very good mi- 
crofcope ; it is of a very pure red, perfectly tranfparent, except 
in the centre, where there were evident marks of the embryo 
forming, and opaque ramifications pafling off from the body 
of it. The egg is perfectly oval, and about .the fize of an 
ant’s egg. The maggot is about the one-eighth of an inch 
long, formed of many rings (ten or twelve) with a fmall red 
head ; when feen with a microfcope, the parts of the head 
were eafily diftinguifhed, with fix fmall fpecks on the breaft, 
fomewhat projecting, which feemed to be the incipient formation 
of the feet. This maggot is now in my cuftody, in the form 
of a nymph or cryfalis, its annular coat forming a ftrong 
covering, from which it fhould ilfue forth a fly. 1 have never 
feen the fly, and cannot therefore defcribe it more fully, or 
determine its genus and Ipecies. I am promifed a drawing of 
the infeCt in its different ftages, and fhall be able foon to add 
to a botanical defcription of the plant a drawing of the 
branch, with the different parts of fructification and lac on it. 
6 . The 
