COCCUS, in natural history, agenus of insects of the order Hemiptera. Generic character : snout pectoral ; abdomen bristled behind : wings two, upright in the males: females wingless. There are about fifty species ; extremely fertile and troublesome in hot-houses and green houses ; the male is very active ; the fe male has a body nearly globular, and is slow, inactive, and fixed to different parts of pl ants. The most important species is the coccus cacti, or cochineal coccus, celebrated for the beauty of the colour it yields When properly prepared. It is a native of South Amerca, and feeds on the cactus opuntia. The female, or offi cinal cochineal insect, in its full grown or torpid state, swells or grows to such a size, in proporticni to that of its first or creeping state, that the legs, antenna, and proboscis are so small, with respect to the rest of the animal, as hardly to be discovered, except by a good eye, or with the assistance of a glass ; so that on a ge neral view it bears as great a resemblance to a seed or berry as to an animal.
When the female cochineal insect is arrived at its full size, it fixes to the sur face of the leaf, and envelopes itself in a white cottony matter, which it is suppos ed to spin or draw through its proboscis, in a continued double filament, it being observed, that two filaments are fre quently seen proceeding from the tip of the proboscis in the full grown insect. The male is a small and rather slender dipterous fly, about the size of a flea, with jointed antenna!, and large white wings in proportion to the body, which is of a red colour, with two long filaments proceeding from the tail. It is an active, lively animal, and is dispersed in small numbers among the females, in the pro portion of one male to 150 females.
When the female has discharged all its eggs, it becomes a mere husk, and dies : so that great care is taken to kill the in sects before that time, to prevent the young from escaping, and thus disap pointing the proprietor of the beautiful colour. The insects, when picked or briished off the plants, are killed by the fumes of heated vinegar, or by smoke, and then dried, in which state they are imported into Europe. It is said the Spanish government is annually more en riched by the profit of the cochineal trade, than by the produce of all its gold mines. Cochineal is used in the large scale by dyers, and it is the fine colour so much esteemed in painting, known by the name of carmine : when properly mixed with hair-powder, it is what ladies use as rouge.
C. ilicis, or kermes, is a species adher ing, in its advanced or pregnant state, to the shoots of the quercus coccifera, un der the form of smooth reddish-brown grains or balls, of the size of small peas. The tree or shrub grows plentifully in many parts of France, Spain, Greece, and the islands of the Archipelago. The coc ci are found adhering in groups of five, six, or more, together, or pretty near each other. Woollen cloth dyed with kermes was called scarlet in grain ; the animal having been popularly considered as a grain.
A very small species of this genus is of ten seen, in its torpid state, on the sur face of different kinds of apples, particu larly on the golden pippin. It is not more than the tenth of an inch in length, and is of a long oval shape, gradually de creasing to a point at one end. It contains thirty or forty oval white eggs, envelop ed in a silky matter.