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INDIAN MUSEUM NOTES.

ISSUED BY THE TRUSTEES.

VOLUME II.—No. 3.

ON

WHITE INSECT WAX IN INDIA.

Published by Authority of the Government of Endia, Rebdenve and Agricultural Department.

CALCUTTA.
PRINTED BY THE SUPERINTENDENT OF GOVERNMENT PRINTING, INDIA,
189l.

Price Eight Annas.

PRESENTED

BY

The Crustees

OF

THE INDIAN MUSEUM.

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Vol. IL. ] | [ No. 3.

INDIAN MUSEUM NOTES.

WHITE INSECT WAX IN INDIA.
[ With one Plate. |

In the early part of 1891 the Trustees of the Indian Museum under-
took, at the suggestion of the Government of
India in the Revenue and Agricultural De-
partment, to furnish a report upon the subject of white insect wax in
India. Attention had previously been drawn to the subject by the
authorities of the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew, as there is said to be
a considerable demand for the wax owing to its property of “ breaking the
grain” of otherwise crystalline substances and thus rendering them suit-
able for candle-making. The following report therefore has been drawn
up in the Entomological Section of the Indian Museum, and is founded,
partly upon the specimens and replies furnished by the Forest Officers of
the Central Provinces and Bengal, in answer to a circular letter addressed
to them by the Inspector General of Forests, and partly upon information
gathered from specimens, already preserved in the Museum collection,
and from the papers previously published upon the subject. Help in the
chemical and botanical examination of the specimens has been kindly
afforded by Mr, T. H. Holland of the Geological Survey and Dr. D. Prain
of the Botanical Gardens.
The white wax of commerce is produced by one of the Coccide insects,
The occurrence of the insect in known to entomologists as Hriocerus pelu.
India. This insect has long been cultivated in China,
where it yields a large amount of wax, which is used chiefly in candle-
making, though the extent of the industry is said to have fallen off
considerably of late years, owing to the introduction into China of
kerosine oil, which has largely taken the place of the candles previously
in use.’ So far as our present information goes, the insect which pro-
duces white wax in China does not occur in India, but it has long been
known that an insect, closely related to it, is occasionally to be met with,
especially in the jungles of Southern and Central India. This insect is the
one referred to by Dr. Watt in his paper? on candles. It was originally
described in the year 1790, under the name of Coceus ceriferus,> and is
known to modern entomologists as Ceroplastes ceriferus.* 1t produces a

Preliminary.

‘1 Hosie: Three Years in Western China, London, 1890.

2 Vide Dr. Watt’s Dictionary of the Economic Products of India.
3 J. Anderson : Monographia Cocer ceriferi, Madras, 1790.

* Siguoret : Ann, Soc, Ent, France (5), voi. ii, p. 40 (1872).

M/S bE

92 Indian Museum Notes, [ Vol. IL

certain amount of wax, but is very rare and has never been utilised com-
mercially. It was shown too, by Dr. Pearson,! as long ago as the year
1794, that its wax is not altogether suitable for candle-making, as both
the wax itself, and also mixtures of the wax with olive oil, when made into
candles, burn with a dim smoky light, and give off a resinous odour.

A good deal of confusion in our knowledge of the matter has arisen
from the fact that a totally distinct insect, which is known to ento-
mologists as Phromnia marginella, produces considerable quantities of a
white sugary secretion, which has no connection with wax, but on the con-
trary, is totally useless for candle-making, thongh it has sufficient super-
ficial resemblance to white wax to have often been mistaken for it. This
fact not only accounts for many of what would otherwise appear to be
hopeless contradictions in the reports of different observers on the subject,
but has also led to the supposition that white wax is to be procured in
India in very much larger quantities than is really the case. The mistake
seems to have originated in the figures and description given of the White
Wax Insect of China, in the year 1797, by Sir George Staunton,” this being
the origin of the more elaborate figures and description published in
Westwood’s edition of Donovan’s Insects of China*; in each case an
insect closely allied to Phromnia marginella being erroneously described
as the White Wax Insect of China. The error was very clearly pointed
out in the year 1843 by Captain Hutton,* but the mistake, once made,
seems to have cropped up again and again, the belief in it being further
extended by some observations made, about the year 1850, by Dr.
Charles Murchison. Dr, Murchison examined the flocculent append-
ages attached to the bodies of the larve of an insect, which, from
his description, seems to have belonged either to the species Phrom-
nia marginella or to something very much like it, and he found that
these appendages consisted of what he believed to be wax. An ex-
amination, recently made by Mr, Holland of the flocculent append-
ages of larve of Phromnia marginella preserved in the collections of
the Indian Museum, has not confirmed Dr. Murchison’s observations.®

1 “ Observations and experiments on a Wax-like Substance resembling the Pela of the
Chinese, collected at Madras by Dr. Anderson, and called by him, ‘ White lac’ ” ; Philos,
Trans., Royal Soc. Lond., vol. 84, p. 883 (1794).

2 Embassy to China, London, 1797, vol. i, p. 353.

3 London, 1842, pl. 17.

* Journ. As. Soc, Bengal, vol. xii, p. 898 (1848).

® Proc. Linn. Soc. Lond., vol. ii, p. 379 (1848—55).

6 The floceulent matter attached to the specimens preserved in the Indian Museum
collection consists of fibrous matter which not only refuses to melt, but, on the contrary,
decomposes when heated, does not dissolve in naphtha, and under the microscope appears to
consist of minute curved filamentous particles. ‘That observed ‘by Dr. Murchison, on the
other hand, melted on heating into transparent colourless wax, which was readily soluble in
naphtha and which crystallised on cooling, into acicular crystals, arranged in stellate
masses, this fori of crystalisation being one readily observable in the wax secreted by
Ceroplastes ceriferus.

—— ee

No, 3.] White Insect Wax in India. 93

But even in the event of the flocculent appendages being found in some
eases to contain wax, the quantity in which they occur is so small that
they can be of no practical value ; and the only reason for calling attention
to them in this notice is owing to the fact that the sugary secretion,
which is produced in considerable quantities by the insect, is liable to be
confounded with the flocculent matter with which the larve are clothed.
The scarcity of the White Wax Insect in India is: remarkably illustrated
by the material which has recently been collected by the officers of the
Forest Department. This material, which has been forwarded to the
Indian Museum, consists of four specimens, three of them connected with
Phromnia marginella, while the fourth specimen is the only one which
represents the White Wax Insect, and even it comprises only about a score
of individuals, which would altogether yield but a minute quantity of
the wax,

Phromnia marginella is so entirely different, both in its habits and
appearance, from the White Wax Insect, Ceroplastes ceriferus that it is
easy in most cases to make out which of the two species is referred to
in the papers which have been published on the subject. In order, there-
fore, to prevent further confusion between the two insects, they are both
included in the following résumé, which is accordingly arranged under
the headings of Ceroplustes ceriferus and Phromnia marginella,

The specimens of Ceroplastes ceriferus that have been forwarded to
the Museum in connection with this inves-
tigation consist of about a score’ of scales
found by Mr, W. P. Thomas, Deputy Conservator of Forests, Hoshanga-
bad, Central Provinces. Mr. Thomas found them in February 1889 on
one of the hill spurs of the Panchmari range near Mogra, on saplings of
Terminalia chebula, Buchanania latifotia, and Terminalia tomentosa,*
and he reports that the insect was very scarce and only found after long
search, while the natives knew nothing at all about it. The wax has
been kindly examined by Mr. T. H. Holland, who reports on it as
follows :—

“The wax occurs on the twigs in small mounds of dull, buffcolour and puckered
surface, apparently from drying. Under the thin crust the material is light pink in
colour and presents a waxy lustre, with, also, a pleasant smell.

“The wax melted at 140° F. (60°C.) to a clear liquid, and, on cooling, produced
microscopic, spherulitic growths of radially arranged, polarising crystals.

“ About 20 per cent. of the material dissolved in cold absolute alcohol ; but it was
almost completely soluble in boiling alcohol, from which it is again precipitated as a

CEROPLASTES CERIFERUS.

1Of these three have been preserved in the collections of the Indian Museum for
reference.

2 The leaves sent with the specimens have been kindly examined by Dr. D, Prain, who
identifies them as belonging to the species Buchanania latifolia, Roxb., and Terminalic
chebula, Roxb.

94 Indian Museum Notes. [Vol. I.

white opalescent cloud on addition of cold water, and is not again cleared by boiling.
The wax is soluble in benzol.

“The specific gravity at 84°F. was 1:04 (determined by suspension in a solution of
salt).

: As an average of two determinations, the amount of moisture was found to be
10°4 per cent., but the discrepancy between the two results (9°38 and 11:0) was no —
greater than one would anticipate from the appearance of tke specimens.

“ By the action of strong nitric acid the wax was decomposed to a yellow solution,
with a faint aromatic smell; but the quantity at my disposal was too small to
determine the products of oxidation, which might be of interest to compare with the
results obtained by a similar treatment of Pela, the Chinese wax investigated by
Buckton. The few determinations made do not closely agree with the properties of
cerotate of ceryl (C;,H 1050 )2 the principal constituent of Chinese wax.”

Ceroplastes ceriferus was originally described in the year 1790 by
Dr. Anderson,! who found it in Madras. It was afterwards figured and
described by Westwood,’ whose description, however, as quoted by Sig-
noret,? is confined to the mass of white wax, which is irregularly hemi- ~
spherical in shape, of the size of a large split pea, encloses the shell of
the female insect, and was originally found in Madras on the twigs of a
species of Celastrus, which is referred to as Celastrus ceriferus, Dr.
Anderson’s original paper has not been found, but Dr. Pearson* gives a
detailed account of Dr. Anderson’s white wax, which was submitted to
him for examination. According to Dr. Pearson, Dr. Anderson procured
some pounds’ weight of the wax and sent it in the year 1792 to the
Royal Society, at the same time complaining that the children, whom he
employed to gather it, were tempted by its sweetness to eat so much of
what they collected as materially to diminish the produce of his trees ;
the wax was also believed to possess medicinal qualities. Pearson found
that the raw wax in its dry state hasa saltish and bitterish taste, and in
the mouth is soft and tough, having thus lost the sweetness which cha-
racterises it in its fresh state. It contains a large proportion of a watery
liquid, which has a slightly saltish taste. In its raw state the wax is as
light, or lighter than as, bees’ wax, but, after being melted and purified by
straining, it sinks in water, and is therefore specifically heavier than most
bees’ wax. ‘Two thousand grains of the raw article, when melted and
purified by straining through fine cloth, produced 1,220 grains of wax.
This purified wax was yellow in colour, hard and brittle, with scarcely any
taste, melted at a temperature of between 145° and 146° Fahrenheit, was
soluble in volatile oil of turpentine, and partially soluble in alcohol.
Candles, with cotton wicks, were made of the purified wax; they burnt
more rapidly, but were thought to give less light than wax eandles of the
same size; they alsosmoked and produced a resinous smell. Saturated

1 Monographia cocci cerifert, Madras, 1790.

2 Gardener’s Chronicle, 1853, page 484.

3 Ann, Soc. Ent. France, ser. 5, vol. ii, page 40.

4 Philos. Trans. Royal Soc, London, vol. 84, page 383 (1794).

No. 3.] White Insect Wax in India. 95

solution of the wax ir alcohol, when spread upon surfaces of paper, cloth,
and wood, left, on drying, a thin coat of resinous matter, which, however,
was not bright or smooth, so this solution does not afford a good varnish.
The wax, when united with olive oil, became whiter in colour, and as soft
as bees’ wax, but it burnt, as before, with an unsteady light, smoking
and producing a resinous smell. Dr. Pearson concludes that bees’ wax
and white wax are homogeneous substances, formed of very much the
same constituent parts, the proportion of these parts however being very
different in the two substances.

According to an account published in the Journal of the Agri.-Horti-
cultural Society of India, Volume V, page 76 (1873—78), the species was
again brought to notice in the year 1875, when Mr. Peppe forwarded
specimens which he had found upon pepul twigs in Chota Nagpur, and
noticed that he had also found it upon mango and arjoon trees. The
specimens were identified by Mr. F. Moore, who also had the wax ana-
lysed, the following being an abstract of the analysis furnished by him :—

“ Wax, of a dull opaque pale brown colour. The outer shell, darker and somewhat
translucent. Moderately hard and brittle, of somewhat pleasant smell. On crushing
in a mortar minute drops of water made their appearance. On heating it spluttered
much, owing to the disengagement of steam. At 55°C. it melted to a clear liquid with
a slightly flaky deposit. 0°5868 grm., burnt, left an unweighable trace of ash.
Absolute alcohol dissolved 34 per cent. Boiling absolute alcohol dissolved 98°08 per
cent. In benzine the wax was very easily soluble, with the exception of a little
brownish matter. In ether it dissolved freely, but not entirely. In essence of tur-
pentine, and also in carbonic sulphide, it was very sparingly soluble. The percentage
of water varied from 11:02 to 13:16 in the specimens examined. Organic analysis
gave, in 100 parts of the wax, carbon from 78°57 to 78°79, hydrogen 13°46 to 13:08,
oxygen 7°97 to 8°13, and the wax therefore was supposed to consist of a compound of
13 atoms of carbon, 26 atoms of hydrogen, and 1 atom of oxygen.”

The insect does not seem to have been again noticed until 1889,
when a few specimens were sent to the Indian Museum from the Kangra
Valley, where they were found in small numbers upon tea bushes. In
this case the specimens were identified by Mr. W. M. Maskell, but noth-
ing was ascertained regarding the habits or transformations of the insect.

There is some confusion in the synonymy of the insect which pro-
duces the white sugary secretion in India,
but it is undoubtedly the Cigale phalenoide-
verte, described and figured in the year 1788 by Stoll. (Cigad, p. 50, pl.
1], fig. 54), and quoted in 1791 by Olivier (Hncyclop. Meth. Ins. vi, p.
575, No. 43), under the name of Fulgora marginella, also in 1862 by
Stal (Ofvers, K. Sy. Akad. Stockholm, xix, p. 490), under the name of

PHROMNIA MARGINELLA.

96 Indian Museum Notes. [ Vol. Il.

Phromnia marginella.1_ In the Asiatic Researches, (Volume 14, p. 182,
published in Caleutta in the year 1822, Major-General T. Hardwick
deseribes and figures an insect under the name of Chermis mannifer,?
which is probably identical with Phromnia marginella, Oliv. But by far
the best account of the insect is given by Captain T. Hutton in the
Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. xii, p. 898, Calcutta, 1843,
where the name attributed to the species is Flata limbata.

The insect was found by Captain Hutton on the lower slopes of the
Mussoorie Hills in the North-West Provinces, the sugary secretion
being only obtainable throughout the dry weather from January to June,
as it gets washed away by the first heavy rain that falls upon it.
According to Captain Hutton the eggs hatch in December, and the
larve cluster like sheep upon the food plant. They feed by sucking up
the juices of the leaves, and moult several times, gradually increasing in
size until the setting in of the rainy season in June, when winged
imagos begin to emerge. In the imago the front wings are grass green,
with anterior margins red, the posterior wings are milk white, the body
is greenish, and the abdomen is generally covered up with white floccu-
lent matter similar to what is found upon the larve, The eggs are laid
in considerable numbers in the bark of the twigs, a slight swelling of
the wood often taking place where the eggs have been laid. The imagos

1Tn his Entomologia systematica published in the year 1794, Fabricius notices that
his Cicada limbata from South Africa is identical with’ Stoll’s species from Ceylon. There
would seem, however, to be some doubt upon this point owing to the geographical position
of the two lcealities. The references to Cicada limbata are as follows :—

Cicada limbata, Fabr., Sp. Ins. ii, p. 322, No. 3 (1781).
% » Ent. Syst. iv, p. 27, No. 3 (1794).
Flata limbata, Fabry. Syst. Rhyn., p. 46, No. 6 (1808).

Jn the British Museum Catalogue of Homoptera, published in 1851, further confusion
has arisen between Phromnia marginella and Flata nigricornis. The latter is a species
which differs very markedly from Phromnia marginella in having the forewing brown with
black dots along the posterior margin, instead of its being bright green with anterior
margin red, as in P. marginella. As far as has been made out, the references to Plata
nigricornis are as follows, though the diversity in the localities from which it is recorded,
are so remarkable as to seem to point to some confusion in identification :—

Flata nigricornis, Fabr., Syst. Rhyng., p. 45, No. 1, 1803, America.

5 35 Donov. Ins. China, p. 40, pl. 17, 1842, China.
Cigale portelaine, Stoll., Cigales, p. 101, pl. 26, fig. 145, 1788, Africa.
Fulgora pallida, Oliv., Encyclop. Meth. Ins. vi, p. 575, No. 42, 1791, Africa.

2 This insect was found upon a species of Celastrus in the neighbourhood of Pachmari
and is referred to by Blanchard (Bull. Soc. Zool. de France, 1883, p. 277) as synonymous
with the Scale insect Coccus manniparus described by Ehrenberg (Hemprich and Ehrenberg’s
Symbole physice, vol. iii, pl. x, 1829) as responsible for the sugary secretion which is
collected at the present day by the Arabs from the Zamariz gallica plant in Sinai, and
which is supposed to be identical with the manna eaten by'the children of Israel in the
wilderness. A comparison however of the figures given by Ehrenberg and Hardwick
shows clearly that the insects they respectively describe are totally’ distinct from each
other.

‘

No.geg =~ White Insect Wax in India. 97

move but little from the food plant and often live on until after their
egos have hatched in the cold weather. The larve, and to a less extent
the imagos, are covered with masses of white flocculent matter, which is
thought to be secreted by small glands distributed over the abdomen,
and opening by minute pores in the integument. The sugary matter is
said to be excreted in a liquid state by the larve, and drops on to the
leaves, where it hardens. Little is known of the method of its origin,
but it is likely to be secreted by the large gland-like organs which are
situated on either side at the extremity of the abdomen in the larve
(Fig. 2 d).

The specimens, furnished by the Forest Department, consist of larvae
and pieces of sugary secretion found by Mr. W. P. Thomas, in February
1889 in the Narsingpur district of the Central Provinces. The insects
were found on the green succulent coppice shoots of Hla@odendron rox-
burghti, growing on elevated ground, and the sugary secretion was found
coating the leaves below where the larve were feeding. Mr. Thomas
ascertained that the Koorkoos and other tribes know the insect, but make
no use of the sugary secretion, which they say has a narcotic effect when
eaten. To this Mr. R, H. E. Thompson adds that he has found the insect
both in several of the warmer valleys of the North-Western Himalayas,
and also at elevations, ranging from a thousand to fifteen hundred feet
above sea-level, in the forest-clad country of the Central Provinces to the
south of the river Ganges. He notices that in Garhwal the natives eat the
sugary secretion and call the insects Dhaberi, ze, “sheep,” on account of
their habit of clustering together and jumping away when disturbed.

In the collections of the Indian Museum are representatives of the
species from Dehra Dun, Sikkim, Naga Hills, Cachar, Margherita
(Assam), TaVoy, and Siam.

Catourra : ‘ E. C. COTES,
6th May 1891.

Indian Museum,

Government of India Contral Printing Ofier,—No, 248 R, & A.~—5:10-91,—1,009,—F, T, B,

r

PLATE XVI.

Fig 1. CHERORL AST HS CHRIPE RUS

PHROMNIA MARGINELLA.

© Chulerab otty del.

Photo-etching from the original Drawings Survey of India Offices.Caleutta,August 1891

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EXPLANATION OF PLATE.

—

Fig. 1. Ceroplastes ceriferus ; twig with three wax-covered females, nat. size.

Fig. 2. Phromnia marginella ; a, imago natural size; b and c larve, natural size and
enlarged, in each case divested of the flocculent matter with which they are
ordinarily covered; d, gland like organs situated at the extremity of the
abdomen in the larva, enlarged; e, leaf covered with dried larval skins as
they appear before being divested of their flocculent coverings, nat. size;
f., leaf covered with tke sugary secretion emitted by the larve.

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