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Coccus Cacti is made from the Cochineal beetle that lives and feeds on the prickly pear cactus in Mexico and South America. The male insects are slender and winged and females are flightless and considerably bigger in girth. Female Cochineal beetles are collected and dried to make the dye Cochineal that is used as a textile and cosmetics dye and food coloring. Because of the enormous cost involved in the manufacture of this dye it is mostly replaced by synthetic dyes. The beetles are very small and are collected individually by hand. It takes several thousand beetles to make one ounce of dye. However concerns with the long term effect of ingesting artificial dyes has revived this industry.<br>See also : [[Anthraquinone]].