cochineal insect

American  

noun

1. any of various small red scale insects of the family Dactylopiidae, related to the mealybugs and characterized by an oval segmented body with white waxy plates and short legs and antennae: the source of cochineal.

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Etymology

Origin of cochineal insect

First recorded in 1795–1805

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

cochineal insect

Most of our domesticated animals have given rise to numerous and distinct races, but those which cannot be easily subjected to selection must be excepted—such as cats, the cochineal insect, and the hive-bee.

From The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication — Volume 2 by Darwin, Charles

The cochineal insect, a species which has the habit of feeding upon the cactus, is used for a dye stuff, for which service the brightly colored body is appropriated.

From Domesticated Animals Their Relation to Man and to his Advancement in Civilization by Shaler, Nathaniel Southgate

It is cultivated for rearing the cochineal insect.

From Catalogue of Economic Plants in the Collection of the U. S. Department of Agriculture by Saunders, William

Crimson and carmine, both of them ultimately from Old Spanish, are not quite doublets, but both belong to kermes, the cochineal insect, of Arabic origin.

From The Romance of Words (4th ed.) by Weekley, Ernest

In Mexico we have the cochineal insect, which is a scale bug that lives on a cactus that grows in Mexico.

From The Insect Folk by Morley, Margaret Warner