Cochineal

Description:

Body overall red to pinkish-red, but difficult to see because they hide under white, waxy material they produce. Adult females are wingless and legless, whereas males are winged and legged and about half the size of the females.

Habitat:

Prickly pear cactus growing on dry, rocky limestone of Belton Lake spillway.

Notes:

Cochineal Insect, a scale insect traditionally used by Native Americans to make a crimson dye called cochineal. Spanish explorers in the 1550s brought cochineal from Mexico back to Europe. Cochineal became the most widely traded and, next to gold and silver, the most valuable product of the West Indies. Cochineal production was lucrative until the 20th century when synthetic dyes largely replaced cochineal. The cochineal scale that had commercial importance is native to South America. Several other scale insects in the same genus are native to desert areas of the southwestern United States. These scales also were once used to make dye, but to a much lesser extent than the South American cochineal insect.