It is the resinous secretion of a kind of tiny insect known as Laccifer lacca which belongs to the family of a scale of insect and mealy bugs of super family “Coccoidea”. Billions of these small insects settle on fresh and juicy branches of certain types of trees known as lac host trees. The main lac host trees are Palas, Ber and Kusum. The insects settle on the branches as parasites and go on secreting resin and wax. After a certain period of time the insects mature and spread over other branches directly or through artificial inoculation. On an average three hundred thousand insects produce one kilogram of lac resin. Sticklac is the basic raw material and is allowed to be exported from India. It contains about 50-60% impurity.