32  Cochineal  Production  in  Gent.  America.  {AMj;fn.T,'m3.aiCL 
fly,  but  how  it  is  produced  is,  strange  to  say,  not  quite  determined,. 
All  the  natives,  and  even  the  foreigners,  in  Guatemala,  who  state* 
that  they  have  made  experiments  for  the  purpose  of  ascertaining  it„ 
assert  that  it  is  produced"  by  the  female  at  the  second  change — that  i& 
to  say,  about  the  middle  of  its  growth  ;  but  this  would  appear  quite 
impossible  from  all  data  in  natural  history. 
I  had  not  leisure  to  make  proper  experiments,  but  an  intelligent. 
North  American  gentleman,  a  doctor  by  profession,  who  had  done  so,, 
informed  me,  that  previously  to,  and  some  time  after  the  second  trans- 
formation or  casting  of  its  skin,  the  male  and  female  insects  are  nearly 
equal  in  number,  and  cannot  be  distinguished  on  the  leaf ;  but,  that 
about  fifteen  days  after  the  first  transformation,  all  the  male  grubs 
change  into  chrysalids,  interring  themselves  in  a  downy  covering,  and 
weaving  a  small  thread,  let  go  their  hold  of  the  leaf,  and  hang  by  it 
for  about  fifteen  days  more,  when  the  female  is  in  the  second  change. 
About  this  time  the  chrysalis  hatches,  and  the  male  makes  it  appear- 
ance as  stated  ;  and  almost  immediately  after  impregnating  the  fe- 
male, falls  off  the  leaf  and  dies.  When  the  smallest  quantity  of  rain 
occurs  about  this  period,  the  males  are  washed  off  before  the  females 
are  impregnated,  and  the  insect  is  barren. 
In  from  eighty  to  ninety  days,  according  to  the  nature  of  the 
weather,  the  cochineal  insect  attains  its  full  growth  in  Amatitlan., 
and  commences  to  breed.  It  is  then  left  upon  the  leaf  long  enough 
to  produce  a  sufficient  quantity  of  young  insects  for  the  second  crop, 
which  attach  themselves  to  the  same  leaves,  and  in  the  same  manner 
as  the  first ;  and  the  full-grown  insect  is  removed  by  touching  it  with 
a  small  piece  of  cane,  and  offered  for  sale  in  flat  baskets,  each  con- 
taining about  twelve  pounds  weight  of  the  insect.  The  greater  part 
of  the  crop  is  sent,  as  before  stated,  to  Old  Guatemala  for  the  purpose 
of  seeding  the  cochineal  estates  there.  This  process  is  nearly  iden- 
tical with  that  of  the  October  seeding,  in  Amatitlan,  already  de- 
scribed, only  that  a  larger  quantity  of  the  insects  are  allowed  to  at- 
tach themselves  to  the  leaves  ;  and  some  parties  attach  the  mother 
cochineal  in  small  pieces  of  reed  instead  of  bark  or  cloth. 
In  Old  Guatemala  all  the  cochineal  estates  are  seeded  but  once  in 
the  year,  from  the  beginning  of  the  month  of  January  to  the  middle 
of  February  ;  but  as  the  climate  there  is  considerably  colder  than  in 
Amatitlan,  the  insect  does  not  obtain  its  full  size,  so  as  to  be  fit  for 
gathering,  in  less  than  a  hundred  days  after  it  has  attached  itself  to> 
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