cochineal

LITCochineal red comes from carminic acid, C₂₂H₂₀O₁₃, made by scale insects (Dactylopius coccus) living on prickly-pear cacti, cultivated in Mesoamerica and shipped to Europe after the Spanish conquest. Like many anthocyanin-type dyes, it changes with pH: orange in acid, red near neutral, purple toward alkaline. Mordants (aluminium in carmine lake) fix and shift the colour.

MODELAbsorption is one Gaussian band whose centre moves with pH (shape and positions are my choice, not measured spectra); colours come through CIE with Bradford. Insects on the cactus pad are harvested by tapping. Nesting: an orange acid core, a purple alkaline shell, a green pad, yellow spines, a blue sky, the red dye, the void.

pH harvest

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