£4. _ NATURAL HISTORY. 
an the forepart of the body, which is inflead of a head, three protttbe- 
gances are perceived, of which the middle is thickifh and roundifh, but 
thofe on the fides more flender and crooked about the middle. 
In the month of dgril, this infeé&t becomes of the -fize and thape of a 
pea, and its membrane or {kin is firmer, and the down, which at the 
beginning lay in bands on the fkin, covers the whole furface like a fort 
of powder, and then it feems to be no longer an animal, but a bladder 
full of pale and watery blood. 
About the middle or end of May, the inner part of the bladder, under 
the belly of the animalcula, is furnifhed with oval grains, about half the 
fize of white poppy feeds, of a pale reddifh colour, fpeckled with gold ; 
they confit of a thin, white, tranfparent fkin, full of a pale reddifh ~ 
liquor: they are about two thoufand in number on each bladder, and 
the eggs of the former infeé, which being fhaked off, becomes exactly 
the fame as thofe that run about the branches and leaves of the Ilex. 
Yn the following fpring, they fix themfelves in the divifions of the trunk 
and branches, where they afterwards lay their eggs. ‘When this in- 
fect has attained its proper fize, the fkin of the belly or lower part, is 
pulled up towards the back, leaving a vacant {pace between the belly 
and the down, infomuch that they have the appearance of Hog-lice 
half rolled up. It is in this {pace that they lay their eggs, which done 
the animal dies, and is dried up. ‘They live upon he juice of the 
deaves, which they fuck in with the fhouts or trunks: 
They are of two fexes, and the females have been hitherto defcribed 
‘but the males are very diftin@ from the former, and are a fort of {mall 
flies like gnats, with fix feet, of which the four forward are fhort, and 
the two backward long, divided into four joints, and armed with three 
crooked nails : there are two feelers on the head a line and a half long, 
awhich are moveable, ftreaked, and articulated: the tail at the back 
part of the body is half a line long, and forked: the whole body is co- 
vered: with two tranfparent wings, and they leap about in the manner 
of fleas. The harvelt of the Kermes is greater or lefs, in proportion 
to the feverity of the winter; and the women gather them before fun- 
rifing, tearing them off with their nails; for fear there fhould be any 
dofs from the hatching of the infe&s, they fprinkle them with vinegar, 
and lay them in the fun to dry, where they acquire a red colour. 
There is another fort of Kermes mentioned by other authors, which 
the country people call worms, and which as they affirm, lay whitifh 
eggs, from which proceed infects of the fame colour, full of filver 
fpecks. It feems to be an infeét of the fame fpecies as the former, little 
differing from the red Kermes. ; 
There is another blackith Kermes, found near Leghorn in Tufcanyy 
upon the dwarf Ilex, like the red kind, only when it comes to maturi- 
ty, it is full of a whitith liquor, and eggs; from thefe a fort of infects 
proceed, not unlike the true Kermes, but whitifh. Hence it appears 
there are feveral kinds of Kermes, which only differ in colour; but the 
xed only is ufed in medicine, and for dying.“ Dodor Lifer has found 
an infect analogous to this, on the twigs of the cherry, and other trees 5 
for it cannot be faid to be the fame. : 
Cochineal, or the grains of the Indian fig, as they appear in our fhopss 
when brought from America, are of an irregular fhape, convex on one — 
"fide, and a little concave on the other; but are both marked with _ 
{= oo yer 
