Lac culture

Lac culture is the deliberate, large-scale rearing of the lac insect for the resinous lac it produces. Lac itself is secreted by Tachardia lacca (earlier classified as Laccifer lacca), a minute, resinous, crawling scale insect that inserts its proboscis into a host plant's tissue to feed and, as it grows, secretes lac from the rear of its body as a protective covering — making it a true parasite of its host plants, chiefly Karanagalli (Acacia catechu), Karuvelai (Acacia nilotica) and Kumbadiri (Schleichera oleosa); the quality of the lac produced depends directly on the quality of the host plant. The female is markedly larger than the male and is responsible for the bulk of lac production; after mating the male dies, and the fertilized female develops quickly, laying 200–500 eggs. Eggs hatch into mobile larvae ('crawlers') after about six weeks, and their mass emergence in search of a new host plant is called swarming. Once a larva settles on a host, it begins feeding continuously while simultaneously secreting lac, gradually becoming fully covered, and eventually moults inside its own cell — male cells are elongated, female cells oval. Cultivating lac at scale requires understanding three practical steps: inoculation, the deliberate introduction of lac insects (via 20 cm twigs of 'brood lac') onto pruned, fresh host plants so the life cycle repeats; harvesting, the collection of lac from the host, done either before swarming (producing immature 'A …