Cochineal

End of Ceylon, the Island of Jewels by Leopold Claremont.

Cochineal from Insects and Man, an account of the more important, harmful, and beneficial insects, their habits and life histories, 1915, by C.A. Eland.

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The cochineal insect, Dactylopius caucus, is another member of the family coccidae, deserving a place among the useful insects.

Without exaggeration, it may justly be called the most celebrated of all the scale insects.

Cochineal, in the larval and female adult forms, is essentially parasitic upon the prickly pear, Opuntia coccinellifera, though it lives equally well on some other allied species.

The adult male is very minute, only a millimeter in length, and of a carmine color, which is intensified on its head and thorax.