Insects · Hemiptera · Dactylopiidae

Cochineal

Dactylopius coccus

Not Evaluated

It has not yet been assessed against the IUCN criteria. See full glossary

The cochineal is a parasitic hemipteran insect of the family Dactylopiidae, whose hosts are plants of the genera Opuntia and Cereus. It is also known in Spanish as grana cochinilla, cochinilla grana and nocheztli. Carmine, which is extracted from the females, has been used as a textile dye for centuries, and still is today as a food colouring and in cosmetics such as lipsticks. After the invention of synthetic pigments and dyes such as alizarin in the late nineteenth century, the use of natural dyes gradually declined. Concerns about the safety of artificial food additives renewed the popularity of cochineal dyes, and rising demand has made farming the insect profitable again, with Peru the largest producer, followed by Mexico, Chile, Argentina and the Canary Islands.

Size

2 cm – 6 cm

Diet

Herbivore

Feeds mainly on plants.

Social structure

Colony

Lives in large concentrations, often for breeding reasons.

Sighting difficulty

Unknown

DesertHerbivore Colonial Insect Desert

12countries

Fun facts

GeneralCarmine red dye is extracted from it, still used in food and cosmetics.
For three centuries carmine was the second most valuable export of Spanish America after silver, and its source was kept as a state secret from rival powers.
Its cultivation became the main economic driver of the Canary Islands in the nineteenth century, until synthetic dyes destroyed the market within a few decades.
It produces carminic acid, which serves to repel most invertebrate predators and which, mixed with aluminium salts, yields carmine, the most intense red then known.
Pre-Columbian cultures used and traded it for at least a thousand years; it was first exported to Europe in 1523 and became one of the most valuable commodities of New Spain.
Production peaked around 1876, at some 3,000 tonnes a year, and collapsed with the arrival of synthetic aniline dyes. Suspicion of artificial red colourings has brought it back to the market.
Only the females, which are wingless and soft-bodied, produce the pigment.
Mexican rearing came close to disappearing in the nineteenth century; today the original genetic diversity is preserved mainly in the hands of smallholders.