COCCUS, the COCHINEAL, was by millake confounded with the COCCINELLA, (Encycl.) which is a genus belonging to a different order. See COCCINELLA, above.
After "frequent," line 6th of the article Coccus, in Encycl. supply as follows.
The most remarkable species are:
1. The coccus hesperidum, or green-house bug, is oval, oblong, of a brown colour, covered with a kind of varnish: It has six legs; with a notch and four bristles at the tail. It infests orange-trees, and other similar plants in green-houses. When young, it runs
upon the trees; but afterwards fixes on some leaf, where it hatches an infinity of eggs, and dies. The male is a very small fly.
2. The coccus phalaridis. The male of this cochineal is small. Its antennæ are long for its size. The feet and body are of a reddish colour, nearly pink, and sprinkled with a little white powder. Its two wings, and the four threads of its tail, are snow white, and of those threads two are longer than the rest. It is to be found upon the species of gramin which Linnaeus calls phalaris. The female contrives, along the stalks of that dog-grass, little nests, of a white cottony substance, in which she deposits her eggs. The small threads of her tail are scarce perceptible.
3. The coccus caeti, or famous Mexican cochineal, (see COCHINEAL, below), a native of the warm parts of America. In Mexico this species is nursed with great care. It naturally fixes upon the leaves of various kinds of plants. The Indians gather them, put 10 or 12 into little beds made of moss or of the flue of coco; after which they hang them upon the thorns of the plant known under the various names of racket, cardassia, Indian fig-tree, opuntia, nopal. There grow great quantities of that plant round their habitations. The gall-insects give birth to myriads of young ones. They disperse, feed on the juice of the plant, and there produce a fresh generation. There are three gatherings of them every year. The first is performed by taking off the nests brought and placed upon the plants; the second, by loosening the cochineal from off the leaves with pincers; and the third, at the approach of winter, by cutting off the leaves that are yet loaded with the insects. Those plants remaining green for a considerable time, afford them sustenance. When they have attained their full size, they are taken off by scraping the leaf. This last cochineal is not of so fine a quality, because a little of the epiderm of the leaf is blended with it. The Spaniards call it granilla. As soon as the insects are brought together, they are destroyed. The method taken to effect this has great influence upon the colour. It then goes by various names. That which they kill by the gentle heat of ovens, is of an ash-grey or mottled, and is named jaspada. If the insects are deprived of life by plunging them with baskets into hot water, it then goes by the appellation of renegrada, which is not covered over with a white powder. Lastly, it bears the name of negra, if destroyed upon the hot plates that have been used for roasting of maize. By this last process it sometimes receives too great a degree of heat, from which it turns somewhat black. Three pounds of fresh-gathered cochineals weigh but one when dried. The cochineal thus nursed upon cultivated plants, yields a more beautiful colour, and in greater quantity, than does the wild. Dried cochineals will preserve their colouring particles for ages; as no other insect fixes on them; neither do they ever decay. This valuable insect is used for dyeing, where it produces a red colour of an excellent tincture, in variety of shades. It is made into scarlet and crimson. The English mix it with gum-lac to dye their cloths. This dye is more expeditious, as good, and cheaper. The cochineal furnishes painters with the most lively colours and most beautiful shades; and the same substance, ground and prepared, produces carmine, which, skilfully laid on over the
the ladies cheeks, emulates nature. At Constantinople they sell a crape or very fine lawn dyed in cochineal; and the same is imitated at Strasburgh. This lawn, dipped in water, may be used equally with the nectar-wool of Portugal to the same purposes as cochineal, one of which is to give a colour to liquors. It is computed that there are imported yearly into Europe, in the course of trade, 880,000 pounds of cochineals.
The female cochineal had been long known, and well described, by several naturalists; but the male having been seldom seen, the history of this valuable insect has hitherto been very defective. Mr Ellis, being informed that this insect bred in great abundance on the cactus opuntia of Linnaeus, in South Carolina and Georgia, as well as on the cactus coccinellifer in Mexico and Jamaica, obtained from Dr Garden some branches of the former, with the insects upon them. In examining several of these specimens, he at last discovered three or four minute dead flies with white wings; and having moistened them in spirit of wine, and observing them with a microscope, found that they were of a bright red colour, which convinced him that these were the true male insects. Dr Garden, to whom this discovery was communicated, made several observations on the male species. This is very rarely found; so that he imagines there may be 150 or 200 females for one male. The male is much less than the female, more active, and better made; and the body of it is of a lighter red than that of the other.
4. The coccus ilicis, or that forming the kermes grains, inhabits the quercus coccifera of the southern parts of Europe. Mr Hellot of the French Academy of Sciences, in his Art of Dyeing, chap. 12. says it is found in the woods of Vauvert, Vendeman, and Narbonne; but more abundantly in Spain, towards Alicante and Valencia. It not only abounds in Valencia, but also in Murcia, Jaen, Cordova, Seville, Estremadura, la Mancha, Serranias de Cuenca, and other places.
In Xixona and Tierra de Relleu, there is a district called De la Grana, where the people of Valencia first began to gather it, whose example was followed all over Spain. It has some years produced 30,000 dollars (5000 l.) to the inhabitants of Xixona.
Both ancients and moderns seem to have had very confused notions concerning the origin and nature of the kermes; some considering it as a fruit, without a just knowledge of the tree which produced it; others taking it for an excrescence formed by the puncture of a particular fly, the same as the common gall observed upon oaks. Tournefort was of this number. Count Marigli, and Dr Nisole a physician of Montpellier, made experiments and observations, with a view of further discoveries; but did not perfectly succeed. Two other physicians at Aix in Provence, Dr Emeric and Dr Garidel, applied themselves about the same time, and with greater success; having finally discovered that the kermes is in reality nothing else but the body of an insect transformed into a grain, berry, or husk, according to the course of nature.
The progress of this transformation must be considered at three different seasons. In the first stage, at the beginning of March, an animalcule, no larger than a grain of millet, scarce able to crawl, is perceived sticking to the branches of the tree, where it fixes itself, and soon becomes immoveable; at this period it
grows the most, appears to swell and thrive with the sustenance it draws in by degrees. This state of rest seems to have deceived the curious observer, it then resembling an excrescence of the bark; during this period of its growth, it appears to be covered with a down, extending over its whole frame like a net, and adhering to the bark: its figure is convex, not unlike a small floc; in such parts as are not quite hidden by this soft garment, many bright specks are perceived of a gold colour, as well as stripes running across the body from one space to another.
At the second stage, in April, its growth is completed, its shape is then round, and about the size of a pea: it has then acquired more strength, and its down is changed into dust, and seems to be nothing but a husk or a capsule, full of a reddish juice not unlike discoloured blood.
Its third state is towards the end of May, a little sooner or later, according to the warmth of the climate. The husk appears replete with small eggs, less than the seed of a poppy. These are properly ranged under the belly of the insect, progressively placed in the nest of down that covers its body, which it withdraws in proportion to the number of eggs: after this work is performed, it soon dies, though it still adheres to its position, rendering a further service to its progeny, and shielding them from the inclemency of the weather, or the hostile attacks of an enemy. In a good season they multiply exceedingly, having from 1800 to 2000 eggs, which produce the same number of animalcules. When observed with the microscope in July or August, we find, that what appeared as dust, are so many eggs or open capsules, as white as snow, out of each of which issues a gold-coloured animalcule, of the shape of a cockroach, with two horns, six feet, and a forked tail.
In Languedoc and Provence the poor are employed to gather the kermes, the women letting their nails grow for that purpose, in order to pick them off with greater facility.
The custom of lopping off the boughs is very injudicious, as by this means they destroy the next year's harvest. Some women will gather two or three pounds a-day; the great point being to know the places where they are most likely to be found in any quantity, and to gather them early with the morning-dew, as the leaves are more pliable and tender at that time, than after they have been dried and parched by the rays of the sun: strong dews will occasionally make them fall from the trees sooner than usual: when the proper season passes, they fall off of themselves, and become food for birds, particularly doves. Sometimes there will be a second production, which is commonly of a less size with a fainter tinge. The first is generally found adhering to the bark, as well as on the branches and stalks; the second is principally on the leaves, as the worms choose that part where the nutritious juice prefers itself the longest, is most abundant, and can be most easily devoured in the short time that remains of their existence, the bark being then drier and harder than the leaves.
Those who buy the kermes to send to foreign parts spread it on linen, taking care to sprinkle it with vinegar, to kill the worms that are within, which produces a red dust, which in Spain is separated from the
husk. Then they let it dry, passing it through a
searce, and make it up into bags. In the middle of
each, its proportion of red dust, put in a little leather
bag, also belongs to the buyer; and then it is ready
for exportation, being always in demand on the African
coast.
The people of Hinojos, Bonares, Villalba, and other
parts of the kingdom of Seville, dry it on mats in the
sun, stirring it about, and separating the red dust,
which is the finest part, and being mixed with vine-
gar goes by the name of pastel. The same is done with
the husks; but these have but half the value of the dust.
The kermes of Spain is preferred on the coast of
Barbary, on account of its goodness. The people of
Tunis mix it with that of Tetuan, for dyeing those
scarlet caps so much used in the Levant. The Tuni-
sians export every year above 150,000 dozen of these
caps, which yields to the Dey a revenue of 150,000
hard dollars (33,750 l.) per annum for duties; so that,
exclusive of the uses and advantages of kermes in me-
dicine, it appears to be a very valuable branch of com-
merce in Spain.
5. The coccus polonicus. See Coccus Polonicus,
(Encycl.)