WAX INSECT, Chung-peh-lah and Shu-lah, Cum., the Coccus pela, Westwood, is of a whitish hne when small, but becomes of a dark-brown colour at the close of the season. They are found on certain oleaceous plants, Ligustrum Japonicum, L. lucidum, and L. obtusifolium, and it is the secretion of these insects that the Chinese call peh-lah or white wax. When this insect is fully developed, the trees seem as if covered with flakes of snow. The wax is an article of great value in Chinese commerce, and a portion is exported. From the time of the Mon golian dynasty, in Chinese works white wax is always to be understood as referring to the waxy secretion deposited upon the small branches of several oleaceous trees. The male insect is described in Banbury's Notes as having large wings and an elongated anal point. The female insect appears to develop° its body in such a way as to envelope the twigs of the tree. The Pen Ts'au describes them as about the size of a wood louse. In the beginning of June they are found upon the small tender branches of the trees, around which they deposit the snow-like wax. In the latter end of August or thereabouts, the wax is carefully scraped off the trees, is melted in boiling water, strained whilst hot, and poured into cold water, when it immediately congeals into a white, opaque, crystalline mass, very much resem bling the best spermaceti. If the collection be delayed, the law wax, called Lah-cha, is inferior. In the autumn, the dark chestnut-coloured insect begins to make a nidus, something like that of the mantis. It is at first no larger tha.n a grain of millet, the whole covering the tree something like fruit. As the spring comes on, these reddish round receptacles become as large :as a fowl's head. Each one of these insects lays several hundred eggs. At the beginning of 3lay these collections of eggs are gathered, and wrapped in the leaves of a reed called yoh, the same as the rice dumplings of the dragon - boat festival are wrapped in. They are put upon the proper trees, and by the early or middle part of June they are hatched, and have emerged from the leaves to enter upon their wax-ina.king on the young
branches of the trees. The. insects have their enemies in the shape of the ants, who climb up the trees and eat their fat friends, unless lime be sprinkled frequently over the trunks of all the wax trees. Thud trees are planted upon the banks between fields, or in clumps. Lu-chan-fu in Ngan-lioei, Kia-hing-fu in Cho-kiang, Hing hwa-ln in Foh-kien, Lipling-fu and Hing-i-fn in Kwei-ehau, Chang - teh - fu, Kwang - ellen - ling, Tsing-chau, Yung-shun-fu, Ilan.g-chan-fu, Kwei yang-chau, and other places in Ho-nan, with several districts in Yunnan and Sze-ehuen, are known to supply this wax in large quantities. It is sold in large, flat, round cakes, sometimes carried without any packing ; the trade is very extensive in Ilankow. The insects and the trees are said t,o have been originally inhabitants of different parts of the country, until attention Wat3 directed to the culture of this wax. It is used in making candles, when mixed with vegetable tallow, also in very small quantitieis t,o harden the outer coat of Chinese candles, and is the basis of the black composition used in rubbing off visiting cards, or other simple impressions from small blocks. It is likewise used in making ointments for sores, cuts, and porrigo ; a kind of bolus is brought from Canton, called Peh-lah hwan, and is much prized as a vulnerary and pectoral dose. White wax is used in internal injuries, after accidents, in much the same way as spermaceti was in European pharmacy up to the beginning of the present century.
The insect is raised in Sze-chuen on the 'stit ching trees, L. Japonicurn and L. obtusifolium, and also on the Shwai-lalt-shu or L. ibota, or species of ulmus. Another tree on which the insect harbours is the Shwui-tung-ts'ing, supposed to be a species of IIibiscus; and a tree called Tien chu, also called Cau-lih and Pent-sail, a native of Kiang-nang, supposed to be a species of Ornus or Fraxmus. The holly tree, Shwiii-kiult-shu, and the Yuen-chi-hwa tree, are also named as afford ino. shelter to the wax insect.—Fortune, 1?esidence, p.140 ; Smith, Mat. .111ed. ; Hanbury.