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Insect Gallery

Scale Bugs

order Hemiptera, suborder Sternorrhyncha, superfamily Coccoidea

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