WOOD-MOTH, Wood-carrying Moth: ' Sacktragcr, . . . GER. 1 Muluka rasari, . . TAM.
Dara-kattea; . SDIG H. 1 Kundi puled, . . „ There aro five ascertained specie& of these in Ceylon,—Psyche Doubledaii, Medals plena, I Valker; Eumeta Cramerii, I Vestiv.; E. Temple tonii, ll'estas; and Cryptothelea consorta, Temp.
Their larvm construct for themselves cases, which they suspend to a branch, frequently of tho pome granate, surrounding them with the stems of leaveti and thorns or pieces of twigs bound to gether hy thread;, till the whole presents the appearauco of a bundle of rods about la inches long. From the resemblance of this to a Renum fasces, ono African species has obtained the name of Lictor. Tho German entomologists denominated the group Sacktmger, tho Singhalese call them Dara-kattea, or billets of firewood,' and regard the intnates as human beings, who, as a punish ment for stealing wood in some former stage of existence, have been condemned to undergo a metempsychosis under the form of these insects.
The male, at the close of the pupal rest, escapes from ono end of this covering ; but the female makes it her dwelling for life, moving about with it at pleasure, and, when alarmed, draws together the purse-like aperture at the open end.—Tennetit's Sketches of the Nat. Ilist. of Ceylon, p. 432.
IVOOD-011a T'ung-yu, Sitt-yu, . Cuts. I Ifung-t'ang-yu, . . CHIN. Peh-t'ung-yu, . . „ Telia gurjun, . 1 SIN D.
Several articles met with in commerce aro known as wood- oils, but wood-oil proper, in Further India, is obtained for the moat part in Assam, Arakan, Burma, and the Straits, by tap ping certain trees of the order Dipterocarpere, Dipterocarpus alatus, D. costatus, D. incanus, D. laevis, and D. turbinatus, but D. incanas is supposed to yield tho best aort, and in the greatest quantity. lu Burma, the modo of extmetion is ES follows :—About the end of the dry season, that is in March or April, several deep incisions are mado with an axe into the heart of the wood, and a good-sized piece scooped out ; into the hole fire is placed, and kept burning until the oil begins to run, when it is received into a bamboo, and allowed to run slowly drop by drop. In 3falacca, also, it is obtained from one of the Dipterocarpeai, very common in the dense jungles of the Malay Peninsula, and which grows to a great height.
ISrhen not tapped too soon, the base of the trunk is often of immense girth. The oil which tlows from the wound is a mixture of balsam and vela tile oil, and when applied as a varnish to wcxxl or other substance, the oil evaporating deposits a hard and durable coat of resin. They are chiefly used as natural varnishes, either alone, or in com bination with coloured pigments, also as a sub stitute for tar in paying the seams of shipping. and for preserving, timber from tho attacks of white ants. They are said also to be useful as an ingredient in lithographic inks. The oils generally receive the names of the localities from which they are imported. Some of them differ con siderably in colour and consistence, but they all possess tho same balsamic odour. Diptemcarpus hevis is one of the commonest forest trees of Berme, growing to an enormous size, and yielding as much as 30 gallons of oil each season, without injuring , tho tree. The oil, when permitted to remain at rvst, ' divides itself into two layers, the upper consisting of a clear, chestnut-coloured liquid balsam, and the lower being in appearanco liko flakes of granu lated sugar, raid consisting probably of the surplus resin deposited by the action of the atmoaphere. The Tell,' gurjun wood - oil, as found in the bazars, generally occurs as a brown, oily-looking, semi-transparent liquid, in odour strongly resem bling a mixture of balsam of copttiba with a small portion of naphtha.
31r. Lowe found that the filtered balsam of the gurjuu oil forrned a brown transparent liquid, which yielded by distillation in 100 Fula,— essential oil, 65 ; Inual resin, 34 ; acetic acid and water, 1. According to .31r. Lowe, the volatile oil possesses all the characters of that of copaiba, and the hard resin (which he regards as pure copaivic acid, exempt from the soft resin, which, according to him, exists in the greater part of the copaiba of commerce) appears to him indicative of superiority as a medicine. Mr. Lowe recognised in the new resinous balsam the singular property of becoming solid when exposed in a closed vessel to a temperature of 230° F. Copaiba presents no similar phenomenon.