LIBRARY

348 COLLEGE ENTOMOLOGY
domen. There are only four important genera: LacciJer Oken, Tachardia Signoret,
Tachardiella Cockerell, and Tachardina Ckll.
By far the most important species in the order and one of the most valuable
and useful animals known is the Indian lac insect, Laccifer lacca (Kern) (Tachardia).
It thrives on native fig, banyan, Rhamnus, Bueta, Acacia, Zizyphu5,
Shorea, Schleichera, and in all on 30 host plants in certain parts of India, Ceylon,
Thailand, Indo-China, Formosa, Philippine Islands, and the East Indies. The
females are viviparous, sexual, and parthenogenetic, and the tiny males are
apterous or winged. The bodies of the females are encased in such a copious
exudation of wax or lac that the limbs of the hosts, which are crowded with the
insects, are completely enveloped in a coating from X to }1 in. thick. This lac
is gathered by pruning off the twigs and is melted off in boiling water, refined,
and prepared for the market as shell-lac or shellac. It is exported in great quantities
and is extensively used in the preparation of varnishes and paints and for
a great many other purposes. The yearly output amounts to about 4,000,000
pounds in weight a year.
There are usually two generations of the insect a year, a summer and a winter
brood, but in some places a third brood is developed. In ancient times the
bodies of the insects were used to make a red or vermilion dye, the color of which
is now generally known as carmine or crimson lake. This dye is less intense
but more permanent than cochineal. While now it has little commercial importance,
it is still used by some Indian women, other than the Hindus, to color
the soles of the feet and to some extent to dye silks.
A number of species of Tachardiella, notably T. larne (Comstock), 1'. cornuta
(Ckll.), T. fulgens (Ckll.), and T. glomerella Ckll., occur in the semiarid regions
of southwestern United States and in Mexico. They all produce lac, some of
which is beautifully colored and was used by the Indians to waterproof baskets,
to back the bows, to repair pottery, and for other purposes. The bodies of T. Julgens
were also used as a cure for lung and stomach troubles. None of these species
is sufficiently abundant to be of commercial importance.
Family KERMIDlE Ferris 1937 (Ker'mi-dre, from the Arabic and Persian
qirmiz, crimson; referring to the red bodies of the females from which
red dyes were obtained). Kermes or Ga11-like Coccids.
The mature females are oval, spherical, robust, or hemispherical, and
the epidermis is soft, leathery or hard, smooth, punctured, pulverulent, or
covered with cottony wax and may be somewhat convoluted. The segmentation
is fairly distinct, obscure, or absent; antennre rudimentary or well formed,
six-segmented; rostrum small, two-segmented; legs absent, rudimentary, or
normally developed; thoracic spiracles present; anal lobes rarely present. The
males have five pairs of ocellame, two anal filaments, and a short stylus. The
immature forms are flattened, and usually have an anal ring and anal ring setal.
The family, as now constituted, contains a number of important genera such
as Cryptococcus Douglas, Eriococcus Targioni, Fonscolombia Lichtenst.ein, Gossypada
Signoret, Kermes Boitard, OllijjieUa Ckll., and Trabutina Marchal.