Abstract
SIR G. STAUNTON in his travels, “Embassy to China”, published in 1797 in three volumes, describes, in vol. 1 on p. 352, a wax-producing insect that he observed in Cochin-China and not in China proper. He says, "These insects, each not much exceeding the size of the domestic fly, were of a curious structure, having pectinate appendages rising in a curve, bending towards the head, not unlike the form of the tail feathers of the common, fowl, but in the opposite direction. Every part of the insect was... completely covered with a white powder. The particular stem, frequented by these insects, was entirely whitened by a powder... strewed upon it by them. The annexed engraving will convey some idea of what is here very imperfectly described. The powder was supposed to form the white wax of the East". He says further it is mixed with oils and moulded into candles.
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MAHDIHASSAN, S. Staunton on the Wax Insect of China. Nature 141, 924 (1938). https://doi.org/10.1038/141924a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/141924a0
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