Part I. ] 
Steering : Note on the Lac Insect. 
21 
branches the lac never appears to be so healthy and many of the cells 
will be found to contain dead insects. Ants should therefore be kept 
off lac-bearing trees. 
(2) Insects directly predaceous upon the lac insect. 
Very little is known about the species of insects which prey upon 
the lac insect. As far as is at present known, the lac is attacked by 
one or more caterpillars belonging to species of Galleria and Enhlcmnia. 
In 1899-1900 Mr. D. 0. Witt, of the Indian Forest Service, made 
some interesting investigations into the hfe history of a species of 
Enblemma subsequently identified as E. amabalis. Mr. Witt wrote an 
interesting paper to the Indian Forester which deals so fully with the 
subject that it is reproduced below. The following are descriptions 
of the caterpillar and moth : — 
Larva. — Small, white, without markings. Head darker coloured. 
PI. I, fig. 2, shows this larva enlarged. 
Pupa . — Small, narrow, palish yellow. Length 1 inch. The pupa 
is enclosed in a cocoon made of particles of lac, and figs. 2 a and 2 b 
show the pupa and cocoon. 
Moth . — Ochreous white in colour. The fore wing with a brown 
transverse angled line near the middle, the portion beyond it being 
pink, except at the costa. The hind wing with the base pale, with an 
indistinct brown transverse line. Both wings with submarginal whitish 
lines with pink beyond them. Expanse of wings 24 milhm. PI. I, figs. 
2c, 2d, show the male and female moths. 
Mr. Witt’s note is as follows : — 
“ There are two crops of lac each year formed by the young larvae 
of Tachardia laeca, the first swarming out in July and the second in 
up the sweet excretions, thus ensuring the death of the insects beneath the scales, 
the Ranger subsequently WTote as follows on this point : — 
‘A few days after the lac was laid to the Arhor plants, the lac insects sw'armed out 
and in about a week they began the process of making lac on the Arhor jdants. Just 
at that time hundreds of the ants appeared and surrounded the place where the lac 
was being made and as far as I could examine I found them eating both the sweet 
exudation and the lac insects themselves.’ 
This point is one of such importance as well as of consiaerable interest that it re- 
quires early and close investigation. It is not inconceivable that the ants may pierce 
the soft bodies of the 3’oung larvae with their mandibles w ith the object of sucking out 
the sweet secretion with which thej' are filled. Aphidae (jilant lice) are provided 
with a pair of small siphon-like bodies on the dorsal surface of the body; by exerting 
pressure on the sides of the body by means of their antennae small drops of the sugary 
secretion are emitted from the siphons and sucked uj) h>' the ants. The lac larvae are 
unprovided with such siphons and it is };rchahle that tlie j)ressure exerted ujion the 
bodies to cause them to exude the swxet secretion results in ruptures of the thin 
skin and subsequent death. 
