We pass on now to the history of another family — namely, the Gaiiinseda, as Re'aumur calls them, or Cocci. They pass the greatest part of their lives — that is to say, many months — entirely motionless, sticking to the stalks or branches of shrubs; remaining thus as devoid of movement as the plant to which they are attached. One would say that they were part and parcel of it. Their form is so simple, that nothing in their exterior would make one guess them to be insects. The larger they become the less they resemble living things. When the coccus is in a state for multiplying its species, when it is engaged in laying its thousands of eggs, it resembles only an excrescence ofthe tree.

The Gallinsecta are found on the elm, the oak, the lime, the alder, the holly, the orange-tree, and the oleander. Some of the species are remarkable for the beautiful red colouring matter which they furnish. Such are the Coccus cacti, the Chermes [or Kermes\ variegatus, or Oak Tree Cochineal, and the Coccus poloniciis.

The Common Cochineal, Coccus cacti, is found in Mexico, on the Nopal, or prickly pear \Opuntia), particularly on the Opuntia vulgaris, the Opuntia cocci/era, and the Opuntia una, plants which belong to the family of Cactaceae.

These insects are rather remarkable, in that the male and female are so unlike that one would take them for animals of different genera. The male presents an elongated, depressed body, of a dark-brown red. Its head small, furnished with two long feathery antennae, has only a rudimentary beak. The abdomen is terminated by two fme

" Recherches, " &c., pp. 205, 206. 62

hairs, longer than its body. The wings, perfectly transparent, reach beyond the extremity of its abdomen, and cross each other horizontally over its back. It is lively and active. The female presents quite a different appearance. It is in the first place twice as large as the Xnale (Fig. 92), convex above, flat below. It resembles a larva, and has no wings. Its body is formed of a dozen segments, covered with a glaucous dust. The beak is very fully developed, and the two hairs or bristles on the abdomen are much shorter than in the male. The weight of the body, combined with the shortness of the legs, prevents these creatures from being active. The lego only serve, in fact, for clinging to the vegetable from which they draw their nourishment. The circumstances attending the birth of the cochineal insect are very curious.

Fig. 92. The larv?e are born in the dried-up body of their ^°S"/»i^Sr' ^^^^ mother, the skeleton of their mother serving male and female. them as a cradlc. This happens thus:— The eggs are attached to the lower part of the mother's body. When the abdomen of the mother is empty, its lower side draws up towards the upper side, and the two together form a pretty large cavity. When the mother dies, which is not long in happening, her abdomen dries up, her skin becomes horny, and forms a sort of shell. It is in this membranous cradle that the larvae of the cochineal insect are born. The cochineal insect in its wild state lives in the woods. But it can without difliculty be reared artificially.

Every one knows that the little insect called the cochineal, furnishes, when its body has been dried and reduced to powder, a colouring matter of a beautiful red, peculiar to itself. This circumstance has saved the cochineal from the persecution to which so many other kinds of insects have been devoted by the hand of man. In hot climates, in which the cochineal insect delights, it has been

preserved,* and is cultivated as an article of commerce. This is how the cochineal is reared in Mexico:— An open piece of land is chosen, protected against the west wind, and of about one or two acres in extent. This is surrounded with a hedge of reeds, planted in lines, distant from each other about a yard, with cuttings of cactus at most about two feet apart. The cactus garden made, the next thing is to establish in it cochineals. With this object in view they | are sought in the woods, or else the females of the cochineal insect which are pregnant are taken off plants which have been sheltered

HRMIPTRRA.

during the winter, and placed in dozens, in nests made of cocoa-nut fibres, or in little plaited baskets made of the leaves of the dwarf palm, and hung on the prickles of the cactus. These are very soon covered with young larvse. The only thing now required to be done is to shelter them from wind and rain. (Plate IV.)

The larvae are changed into perfect insects, which take up their abode permanently on the branches of the cacti, as Fig. 93 represents. The Mexicans gather them as soon as they have reached the perfect state. The harvest cannot be difficult, considering the immobility of these little creatures. When collected, the cochineals are killed, packed in wooden boxes, and sent to Europe, to be used in dyeing. Such is the method, very simple, as we see, of rearing the cochineal^a method which has been followed for centuries in Mexico. Towards the end of the year 1700, a Frenchman named Thierry de Menouville, formed the project of taking this precious insect away from the Spaniards, and of bestowing it upon the French colonies. He landed in Mexico, and concealed so well the object of his voyage, that he managed to embark and carry to St. Domingo several cases containing plants covered with living cochineals. Unfortunately, a revolution which had broken out at St. Domingo prevented him from succeeding in his praisewortliy endeavours. The cochineals died, and the Spaniards preserved their monopoly in the rearing of this insect. In 1806 M. Souceylier, a surgeon in the French navy, succeeded in bringing from Mexico into Europe some live cochineals. He gave them to the professor of botany at Toulon; but this attempt to preserve them was unsuccessful.

In 1827 the naturalisation of the cochineal was attempted in Corsica, but widiout success. During the same year the cochineal was introduced into the Canary Islands, but the inhabitants did not understand the importance of the experiment. They counted the cochineal among the number of noxious insects, and tried in all ways to rid themselves of it. It was only after results obtained by some more intelligent farmers, that the inhabitants of the Canary Islands perceived the profits they might derive. From that time its cultivation was extended, and after the year 1831 it increased rapidly. Thus, the cochineal imported from the Canary Isles in that year amounted to only 4 kilogrammes. In 1832 the amount was 60 kilogrammes, in 1833 it was 660 kilogrammes, in 1838, 9,000 kilogrammes, and in 1850, 400,000 kilogrammes. The French colonists in Algeria also tried to raise it. In 1831, M. Limonnet, a chemist of

IM THE INSECT WORLD.

Algiers, collected some cochineals, and had the merit of first introducing the insect into the colony. On account of bad weather

Fig. 93. — Branch of the Cactus, with Cochineal Insects on.

these first essays were fruitless, but it was not long before they were repeated.

flEMlPTERA. 135

M. Loze, surgeon in the navy, undertook to introduce the insect again, and, with M. Hardy, director of the central garden of Algiers, gave himself up, with great intelligence, to the naturalisation and rearing of the cochineal in Algeria.

In 1847 the French Minister of War, for the purpose of having the value of the Algerian cochineal fixed by commerce, caused to be sold publicly on the market-place of Marseilles a case of cochineal, the produce of the harvests of 1845 and 1846, from the experimental garden of Algiers, which contained 17 kilogrammes of this commodity. Since that time the cultivation of this insect, the beginning of which was due to M. Limonnet, has rapidly developed. In 1853, in the province of Algiers alone, there were fourteen nopaleries^ or cactus gardens, containing 61,500 plants. The Government at that time bought the harvests for fifteen francs the kilogramme.

We have only pointed out in a general way how the cochineal harvest is conducted. We will now enter into some details on the subject. These insects are gathered when the females are about to lay, that is, when a few young are hatched. It is when the females are pregnant that they contain the greatest amount of colouring matter. When the harvest time has arrived, the rearers stretch out on the ground pieces of linen at the foot of the plants, and detach the cochineals from them, brushing the plants with a rather hard brush,

or scraping them off" with the blade of a blunt knife.

If the season is favourable, the operation may be repeated three times in the course of a year in the same plantation. The insects thus collected are killed, by dipping into boiling water, by being put into an oven, or by being placed on a plate of hot iron. The cochineals, when withdrawn from the boiling water, are placed upon drainers, first in the sun, then in the shade, then in an airy place. During their immersion in water they lose the white powder which covers them. In this state they are called in Mexico roiiagridas. Those which have passed through the oven they call jaspeadas^ and are of an ashy grey; those that are torrefied are black, and are called negras. In commerce three sorts of cochineal are recognised; first, the mastique {mesteque), of a reddish colour, with a more or less abundant glaucous powder; secondly, the 7ioire, which is large and of a blackish brown; thirdly, the sylvestre, which is, on the contrary, smaller and reddish. The last is the least esteemed, and is gathered on wild cacti. Each year there are imported into France 200,000 kilogrammes of cochineals, which represents a value of about three millions of francs. Every one knows that it is from cochineal that carmine is

made, a magnificent red frequently employed by painters. Lake carmine is another product obtained from the cochineal. And, lastly, scarlet is the powder of the cochineal precipitated by a salt of tin. Before the Mexican cochineal was known in Europe, the kcrmes^ or Coccus ilicis^ known still in commerce and by chemists under the

names of An'unal kermes, Vegetable kermes, and Scarlet seed, was used for the preparation of the carmine employed in the arts. This cochineal lives by preference (at least, so it is supposed) on the evergreen oak (Quercus ilex), whence its specific name.

The Coccus ilicis develops itself almost exclusively, not on the evergreen oak, but on the Quercus coccijera, or kermes oak, a shrub common in dry, arid places on the Continent, which vegetates on a great number of spots in the Mediterranean, particularly on the garrigues, or waste land, of Herault.

The females of this insect, which, dried, bear the name of graines (le kermes, are of the size of an ordinary currant, without any trace of rings, nearly spherical, of a violet and glaucous colour. They adhere to the boughs of the shrub Quercus cocci/era, and form dry brittle masses, which the peasants of the south of France collect, and sell at a tolerably high price. Before we possessed the cochineal of Mexico and of Algeria, this cochineal was very much employed in the south of Europe, in the East, and in Africa. It furnishes a beautiful red colour. This last-named and the Mexican cochineal are somewhat used in pharmacy. They enter into alkermes, a sort of liquor served at dinner in Italy, chiefly at Florence and Naples.

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