Cochineal
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Cochineal. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
koch-1-nel', an insect valuable as a source of dye stuff. It feeds on a branching, almost tree-like, kind of cactus, plantations of which have been established for the purpose in Mexico, Peru, some parts of the West Indies , and, of late, in the Canary Islands , parts of Spain, Algiers, and Java. Cochineal dyes were known to the Mexicans before the invasion of that country by white men. The ladies of Queen Isabella's court begged Cortez to bring them a little of the beautiful dye. The cochineal industry has risen to millions of pounds of insects annually--far beyond the possibilities of the irregular supply formerly brought in by Indians. The first step is the establishment of a field of cacti. This may be done by seed, by seedlings from a nursery, or best by cuttings, or lobes, planted where they are to grow. The field is ready in a year or two. A supply of insects with their eggs is then placed on each plant, and the young are left to grow up. The insect belongs to what Comstock calls mealy bugs. It is related also to the insect that produces shellac, and to various scale insects that have become orchard and field pests. The full grown male has a pair of wings and two pairs of eyes, but no way of seizing food. The female is a great eater, but has no wings or other means of making her escape. There are perhaps 150 females to one male; and it is the female heavy with eggs that is valuable. They are brushed off the cactus with soft brushes into bags, and are killed at once by dipping in hot water or being put into an oven. A workman gathers about two ounces a day. The insect is of a reddish brown, covered with a white, mealy powder, and is of the size of a small split pea. Seventy thousand are required to weigh a pound. Cochineal dye is produced by steeping the insects. It is scarlet and carmine, of great brilliancy. Cochineal makes a fine red ink as well.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a dye-stuff employed in dyeing scarlet and crimson; consists of the bodies of the females of a species of Coccus, called C. cacti, because it feeds upon plants of the Cactus family, particularly on one, therefore designated the cochineal plant. The cochineal insect is a small creature, a pound of Cochineal being calculated to contain 70,000 in a dried state. The male is of a deep red color, and has white wings. The female, which is wingless, is of a deep brownish color. When a plantation of the cochineal plant has been formed the cultivator (nopalero) procures branches laden with cochineal insects and after the eggs are laid places the females with the eggs which they cover in nests of a soft substance upon the cochineal plants, and the young insects, when hatched, soon spread over them. The insects are killed by boiling water, by heating them in ovens, or by exposure to the heat of the sun. be speedily killed be They must to prevent them from laying their eggs, which diminishes their value.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The insect these accounts call Coccus cacti is now classified as Dactylopius coccus, and the plantation trade they describe as thriving was already being undercut by synthetic dyes -- aniline and, from the 1870s, artificial alizarin -- which reduced cochineal to a minor commodity for much of the twentieth century. It came back not as a textile dye but as a food and cosmetic colorant: carminic acid, listed in Europe as E120, tints yogurts, drinks, sausage casings and lipstick, and demand rose after regulators restricted synthetic red dyes such as amaranth in the 1970s. Peru, not Mexico or the Canaries, is now the dominant producer, supplying the great bulk of the world crop. Because of allergic reactions, the US Food and Drug Administration since 2011 has required cochineal extract and carmine to be named on labels rather than hidden under natural coloring, and Starbucks abandoned carmine in its drinks in 2012 after customer complaints.
Written for this edition, 2026.