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

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

cochineal insect

At the time of our visit there were about thirty acres of land planted with cactus, and the "seed" of the cochineal insect was expected from the Canary Islands.

From Narrative of the Circumnavigation of the Globe by the Austrian Frigate Novara, Volume I (Commodore B. Von Wullerstorf-Urbair,) Undertaken by Order of the Imperial Government in the Years 1857, 1858, & 1859, Under the Immediate Auspices of His I. and R. Highness the Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian, Commander-In-Chief of the Austrian Navy. by Karl Ritter von Scherzer

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 Nathaniel Southgate Shaler

Artificial naphthol-scarlet is abolishing the culture of the cochineal insect.

From An Introduction to Chemical Science by Rufus Phillips Williams

Opuntia cochinellifera.—A native of Mexico, where it is largely cultivated in what are called the Nopal plantations for the breeding of the cochineal insect.

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

This is the cochineal insect, but only the wild variety; the fine kind, which is used for dye, and conies from the province of Oajaca, miles off, is covered only with a mealy powder.

From Anahuac : or, Mexico and the Mexicans, Ancient and Modern by Edward Burnett Tylor

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