Cochineal
The cochineal is a tiny, soft, flat insect that lives on prickly pear cactus. From the outside it looks white because it is covered in fluffy wax, but inside it is full of deep red colour. People use that colour to dye food, clothes and lipstick.
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Fun facts
Its red colour tastes bad to other insects, so it protects the cochineal from being eaten.
The red dye from cochineals is called carmine, and you can find it in some sweets and lipsticks.
Babies travel to new cactus plants by letting the wind catch their long wax threads.
The female has no wings, but the much smaller male does.
Peru grows more cochineal insects than any other country.
Most asked questions about Cochineal
?What is cochineal used for?
Its red colour is used to make carmine dye for food, drinks, cloth and lipstick.
?What does a cochineal eat?
It sucks the juice of prickly pear cactus.
?How big is a cochineal?
The female is only about 5 millimetres long.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Dactylopius coccus
- Group
- True bugs and cicadas
- Family
- Dactylopiidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hemiptera > Dactylopiidae
- Lives on
- North America, South America
- Also known as
- Cochineal insect
Where the facts come from
- Cochineal (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Jengod. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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