The Indian Forest Records Reports on Lac and Shellac

The allusion * is to the vast numbers of minute lac insects which emerge at the period of swarming and settle on the - young shoots of the " host "-tree to suck its juice and exude the lac of commerce. [...] (2) The vitality and hardiness of the strain or variety of insect engaged in the production and its general efficiency as a producer of lac from the juice of the particular plant on which it is fixed. [...] The honey-dew is excreed the lac-dye accumulated in the body and in the eggs while the various components of " lac " are apparently elaborated in special secretory glands and exude like sweat from various parts of the body the yield being specially abundant from the female during the period of gestation. [...] VIII only (or mainly) on plants more or less afflicted with gummbsis " a disease involving an abnormal growth of gum-producing bacteria in the tissues of the plant ; the suctorial activities of the insect by removing the gum and the bacteria that produce it thus actually promote the welfare of the plant by reducing the disease. [...] Should this theory be found correct it will provide a simple explantion of the fact that in the autumn brood the male undergoes his metamorphosis in about one month while in the spring brood he takes 3i months ; on the assumptions firstly that he is waiting for the period of vegetative activity on the part of the host so that the abundant supply of food required by the female during the first