A Summary of Morphology,Taxonomy and Biology of Cochineal

This paper introduces the morphology,taxonomy and biology of cochineal.Live females may be oval or globular in shape.The body is covered with either a white waxy powder or with long wax filaments that partially or entirely cover the whole insect.When the wax is removed,the insect body appears dark purple-red,The head and thorax are fused and abdomen can be divided into ten segments.There are many pores in the abdomen and all pores are of the quinquelocular type,with five loculi of the same size.The pore are of two types:narrow-rimmed pores and wide-rimmed pores.The structure and distribution of the different types of pores of the female provide one basis for identification of species in this family.The family Dactylopiidae includes only the genus Dactylopius.This genus can be separated from the genera in other families by such characteristics as its red body pigment and its specialization for Cactaceae plants.De Lotto(1974) included a total of nine species in the genus.The female has four developmental stages:egg,first nymplhal unstar(crawler),second nymphal instar,and adult.The male has six stages:egg,first instar nymph,second instar nymph,prepupa,pupa,and adult.