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

A bulbous root they know of dyes brown, the cochineal insect red, and the bark of a tree yellow.

From Through Five Republics on Horseback, Being an Account of Many Wanderings in South America by Ray, G. Whitfield

‘Grain’ is from Lat. granum, a seed, applied to small objects, and hence to the coccus or cochineal insect which yields a variety of red dyes.

From Milton's Comus by Bell, William

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

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

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