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Insect Gallery

Scale Bugs

order Hemiptera, suborder Sternorrhyncha, superfamily Coccoidea

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family Dactylopiidae

Red Dye Bug (Cochineal) Dactylopius coccus

This bug produces an environment that looks like waxy white mold.  It is common on Prickly Pear.  Adult females (1/8" long) never metamorphize into a form with wings, only the males grow wings (1/2" long).

Crushed bug juice make a carmine dye (crimson red) that is still used in permanent dye, food coloring, and other products.

Photo taken in Taylor County, Texas, June 2005

(Native of Texas)

 


 

     

 

? Common Name **zx 4** Scientific Name

This is probably a scale insect.  White fuzz balls on nodes only of a young Net-leaf Sugar Hackberry.  The clusters are about 3/8" wide.

Photo taken in Taylor County, Texas, July 2005

 


 

Also see:

Galls    Mold

 


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