Polish cochineal

Polish cochineal
Life cycle of the Polish cochineal in Breyne's Historia naturalis Cocci Radicum... (1731)
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Hemiptera
Suborder:	Sternorrhyncha
Family:	Margarodidae
Genus:	Porphyrophora
Species:	P. polonica
Binomial name
Porphyrophora polonica (Linnaeus, 1758)
Area where the Polish cochineal was found in commercial quantities[1]
Synonyms [2]
Coccus polonicus Linnaeus, 1758 Coccus radicum Beckmann, 1790 Coccionella polonica Hahnemann, 1793 Porphyrophora frischii Brandt, 1835 Porphyrophora fritchii Signoret, 1869 Margarodes polonicus Cockerell, 1902

Polish cochineal (Porphyrophora polonica, Margarodes polonicus), also known as Polish carmine scales (Polish: czerwiec polski), is a scale insect formerly used to produce a crimson dye of the same name, colloquially known as "Saint John's blood". The larvae of P. polonica are sessile parasites living on the roots of various herbs – especially those of the perennial knawel (Polish: czerwiec trwały) – growing on the sandy soils of Central Europe and other parts of Eurasia. Before the development of aniline, alizarin, and other synthetic dyes, the insect was of great economic importance, although its use was in decline after the introduction of Mexican cochineal to Europe in the 16th century. Historically earlier was used Armenian cochineal scale insect, Porphyrophora hamelii, which is in a same taxonomic family Porphyrophora of the Polish cochineal and in different taxonomic family from cochineal found in the Americas.