The Armenian cochineal scale insect, Porphyrophora hamelii, is in a different
taxonomic family from the
cochineal found in the
Americas. Both insects produce red dyestuffs that are also commonly called cochineal.[8]
During the Middle Ages the Armenian cochineal dyestuff vordan karmir, also known in Persia as kirmiz, was widely celebrated in the
Near East.[4][5][6][16]Kirmiz is not to be confused with dyer's
kermes, which was derived from another insect.[6] The Armenian cities
Artashat and
Dvin were early centers of the production of kirmiz: during the 8th through 10th centuries
Arab and
Persian historians even referred to Artashat as "the town of kirmiz".[4][16] The Arabs and Persians regarded kirmiz as one of the most valuable commodities exported from Armenia.[6] The Armenians themselves used vordan karmir to produce dyes for
textiles (including
oriental rugs) and
pigments for
illuminated manuscripts and church
frescos.[4][16][18][19] Chemical analyses have identified the dye of Porphyrophora hamelii in
Coptic textiles of the 3rd through 10th centuries, a
cashmere cloth used in a
kaftan from
Sassanid Persia in the 6th or 7th century, silk
liturgical gloves from 15th-century
France,
Ottoman fabrics such as
velvets and
lampas of the 15th through 17th centuries, and a 16th-century velvet
cap of maintenance that belonged to
Henry VIII of England.[6][20][21]
At the time of the
Renaissance in Europe, Porphyrophora insects were so valuable that in
Constantinople during the 1430s, one kilogram (2.2 pounds) of Porphyrophora hamelii insects was worth more than 5 grams (0.18 ounces) of
gold.[6][22][23] The
crimsonPorphyrophora-based dyes were especially prized in Europe for dyeing
silk, as the
scarlet dye
kermes was more plentiful, cheaper, and more effective for dyeing
woolen textiles, which are heavier than silk and require more dye.[6] It has been estimated that on the order of a half million dried Porphyrophora hamelii insects were required to dye one kilogram (2.2 lb) of silk crimson during this period.[6][24] On the comparison between Armenian and Polish cochineal, the author of a 15th-century treatise on silks in
Florence wrote that "two pounds of the large [Armenian cochineal insects] will dye as much [silk] as one pound of small [Polish cochineal insects]; it is true that it gives a more noble and brighter colour than the small, but it gives less dye."[6][25]
Around the end of the 16th century the
Old WorldPorphyrophora dyes were supplanted by dyes of the
Dactylopius coccus cochineal species from the Americas, which could be harvested several times per year and yielded a much more concentrated dye.[15]
The
carmine dyestuff of Porphyrophora hamelii owes its red color almost entirely to
carminic acid, making it difficult to distinguish chemically from the dyestuff of
cochineal from the Americas.[6][9][10][15][26][excessive citations] The dyestuff of Porphyrophora polonica can be distinguished by its small admixture of
kermesic acid, which is the major constituent of
kermes from Kermes vermilio.[citation needed]
In 1833 the German naturalist
Johann Friedrich von Brandt suggested the
scientific namePorphyrophora hamelii after the Russian physician, traveler, and historian of German descent Iosif Khristianovich Gamel (Josef Hamel) (
ru), who visited the Ararat plain in the early 1830s and wrote a report about the "cochineal" insects living there.[27][28]
A 2006 Armenian postage stamp depicting P. hamelii
Biology
Porphyrophora hamelii is a
sexually dimorphic species.[30][31][32] The adult female, from which
carmine is extracted, is oval-shaped, soft-bodied, crimson in color, and has large forelegs for
digging. The females can be quite large for a Porphyrophora species: up to 10–12 mm (0.39–0.47 in) long and 7 mm (0.28 in) wide.[30][32] It has been noted that one
troy pound (360 grams) of cochineal insects requires 18,000–23,000 specimens of Porphyrophora hamelii, but 100,000–130,000 specimens of the sister species
Porphyrophora polonica (or 20,000–25,000 specimens of
Dactylopius coccus).[33][34] The adult male Porphyrophora hamelii is a winged insect.
The life cycle of Porphyrophora hamelii is mostly
subterranean.[7][30][31] Newly hatched
nymphs emerge from the ground in the springtime and crawl until they find the
roots of certain
grassy plants that
grow in saline soil, such as
Aeluropus littoralis (
Armenian: որդանխոտ (genus Aeluropus),[18][35] literally "worm's grass") and the common reed
Phragmites australis.[7][30] The nymphs continue to feed on these roots throughout the spring and summer, forming protective
pearl-like cysts in the process. From mid-September to mid-October adults emerge from the ground between 5 a.m. and 10 a.m. to mate.[6][7][35][36] The adult insects, lacking mouthparts, do not feed.[31] Adult males live for only a few days, but adult females can live longer, burrowing into the ground to lay their eggs.[31]
Habitat and conservation
The red dye-producing insects of the Ararat plain were once plentiful: a 19th-century French traveler wrote that shepherds' flocks, when led to drink from the
Araxes (Araks) River, would appear bloody from the insects.[4] In the mid-20th century the extent of occurrence in Armenia was 100 km2 (39 sq mi) with a recorded distribution that included the
Ararat and
Armavir provinces in Armenia as well as the Turkish, Iranian, and Russian
Caucasus, but by the 1990s the extent of occurrence in Armenia had shrunk to about 20 km2 (7.7 sq mi), mostly in Armavir Province.[7][30][37] During the
Soviet period,
desalination of the Armenian salt marshes to create "economic and agricultural regions", and the creation of lakes for
fisheries, "severely restricted the [habitable] area for the insects and [endangered their] existence."[35]
The population in Armenia resides almost entirely in the
Vordan Karmir State Reservation, a
salt meadow habitat of 198.33 ha (490.1 acres) northwest of
Arazap village and 21.52 ha (53.2 acres) in the north of
Jrarat village established in 1987 near the Araks River border with
Turkey, plus a site southeast of
Ararat village and a few patches of several
hectares elsewhere.[7][38][39] There have been no recent scientific reports on populations of Porphyrophora hamelii outside the surroundings of Mount Ararat.[6]
Porphyrophora hamelii is considered
critically endangered within Armenia by meeting the following conditions: an
area of occupancy of less than 10 km2 (3.9 sq mi), plus severely fragmented occupancy or known to exist at only a single location, plus continued decline (observed, inferred, or projected) in the area of occurrence, area of occupancy, and area, extent, and/or quality of habitat; and an
extent of occurrence of less than 100 km2 (39 sq mi) with the aforementioned conditions of continued decline.[7][40]
^
abBen-Dov, Yair (2005). A Systematic Catalogue of the Scale Insect Family Magarodidae (Hemiptera: Coccoidea) of the World. United Kingdom: Intercept (Lavoisier).
ISBN978-1-84585-000-5.
^
abcdefghiDonkin, R.A. (1977). "The Insect Dyes of Western and West-Central Asia". Anthropos. 72 (5/6). Anthropos Institute: 847–880.
JSTOR40459185.
^
abVedeler, Marianne (2014). Silk for the Vikings. Oxford, United Kingdom: OXBOW BOOKS. p. 52.
ISBN978-1-78297-215-0. Vedeler, citing Cardon (2007), notes that "the Persian name Kirmiz originally referred to the Armenian carmine, a parasitic insect living on Gramineae grass, but the same name was also used by Arab geographers for insects living on oak trees in Maghreb and Al-Andalus, probably referring to Kermes vermilio", although "[i]t is ... not clear whether the 'Kirmiz' dyestuff mentioned in early Arab texts always refers to the use of the insect Kermes Vermilio."
^
abcdefghijklmnCardon, Dominique (2007). Natural Dyes: Sources, Tradition, Technology and Science. London, United Kingdom: Archetype Books.
ISBN978-1-904982-00-5. English translation by Caroline Higgitt of Cardon's French-language book Le monde des teintures naturelles (Éditions Belin, Paris, 2003).
^
abcdeKurdian, H. (1941). "Kirmiz". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 61 (2). American Oriental Society: 105–107.
doi:
10.2307/594255.
JSTOR594255.
^Cardon, Dominique (2000), "Du verme cremexe au veluto chremesino: une filierè vénitienne du cramoisi au XVe siécle", in Molà, L.; Mueller, R.C.; Zanier, C. (eds.), La Seta in Italia dal Medioevo al Seicento (in French), Venice, Italy: Fondazione Giorgio Cini, pp. 63–73
^Some articles improperly cite Cardon to suggest, incorrectly, that Armenian cochineal insects were more valuable, by weight, than gold (i.e., one gram of insects was worth several grams of gold) during this era. Cardon (2007) does, however, note that according to the records of a
Venetian merchant trading in Constantinople during the 1430s, even the cheapest Armenian cochineal insects were still worth more, pound-for-pound, than some live
slaves (
Circassian women and adolescents) that he had bought.
^400,000 to 560,000 dried P. hamelii insects were required to dye 1 kg of silk according to the figures of Cardon (2007): 1,000 g to 1,400 g of dried insects per 100 g of silk, with 40 adult females per gram of dried insects. Note that Virey (1840) reports 18,000–23,000 insects per 360-gram troy pound (50–64 insects per gram; not stated whether they were dried).
^Hamel, J. (1833),
"Über Cochenille am Ararat und über Wurzelcochenille im Allgemeinen"(PDF), Mémoires de l'Académie Impériale des Sciences de St. Pétersbourg / Sciences mathématiques, physiques et naturelles (in German), vol. Tome III (1835) [publishing the second part of Tome I (1833)], Frankfurt, Germany: Universitätsbibliothek Frankfurt am Main, pp. 9–64, retrieved 11 October 2014. Publication of Hamel's 4 May 1833 report on the Ararat cochineal. Hamel's report mentions
Brandt.
^"Geghard 7: Monk cells, Khachkar Wall. Geghard's Khachkars". Armenian Monuments Awareness Project. Retrieved 12 October 2014. The red color found on some of the cross stones is a result of their being painted with Vortan Karmir, a red dye made from beetles native to Armenia. The red dye was among the more famous exports of the kingdom, and was valued more than gold in Europe and the Near East. Its resilience has long since proved itself; the color you see now is more than 800 years old.
^
abcdeVahedi, Hassan-Ali; Hodgson, C.J. (2007). "Some species of the hypogeal scale insect Porphyrophora Brandt (Hemiptera: Sternorrhyncha: Coccoidea: Margarodidae) from Europe, the Middle East and Africa". Systematics and Biodiversity. 5 (1). Taylor & Francis: 23–122.
doi:
10.1017/s1477200006002039.
S2CID85698171.
^
abJakubski, Antoni Władysław (1965). A Critical Revision of the Families Margarodidae and Termitococcidae (Hemiptera, Coccoidea). London, United Kingdom: Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History).
^Fennel, James H. (1842),
"On useful insects and their products", in Watt, Charles; Watt, John Jr. (eds.), The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, vol. I, London, United Kingdom: J. Limbird, pp. 295–296
^Cardon (2007) cites her own field mission in Armenia in 1989 as well as the papers by Jakubski (1965) and Mktrtchian and Sarkisov (1985) for her description of Porphyrophora hamelii biology, which states that the mating time is from 5 a.m. to 10 a.m. The Soviet Armenian Encyclopedia (1982) and the online Red Book of Armenia (which cites Mktchyan and Sarkisov (1985) and others) state that the mating time is from 6 a.m. to 11 a.m. Note that in 1982 and 1985 the emergence of the insects in early September would have been in Armenian Summer Time (UTC+5), whereas the Republic of Armenia has been on UTC+4 time year-round since 2012.
^«Որդան Կարմիր» Պետական Արգելավայրի Կանոնադրությունը Հաստատելու Մասին ["Vordan Karmir" State Reservation Statute of Approval]. Armenian Legal Information System (ARLIS.am) (in Armenian). Government of the Republic of Armenia. July 12, 2003. Retrieved 10 October 2014. 1. «Որդան կարմիր» պետական արգելավայրը (այսուհետ` արգելավայր) ստեղծվել է Հայկական Սովետական Սոցիալիստական Հանրապետության Մինիստրների խորհրդի 1987 թվականի փետրվարի 2-ի N 61 որոշմամբ` Հայաստանի Հանրապետության Արմավիրի մարզի աղուտ հողերի վրա: Արգելավայրն զբաղեցնում է 219.85 հեկտար տարածք, բաղկացած է երկու առանձին տեղամասերից` Արազափի գյուղական համայնքի հյուսիսարևմտյան մասում (198.33 հեկտար) և Ջրառատի գյուղական համայնքի հյուսիսային մասում (21.52 հեկտար)` Արարատյան հարթավայրում, ծովի մակերևույթից 835–850 մետր բարձրության վրա:
^"Էնդեմիկ Տեսակներ: Կենդանիներ [Endemic Species: Animals]",
Հայաստանի Ազգային Ատլաս [Armenian National Atlas] (in Armenian), vol. I, Yerevan, Armenia: "Geodeziayi ev Kʻartezagrutʻyan Kentron" POAK, 2007, p. 83,
ISBN978-99941-0-176-4, retrieved 3 January 2015