Yes, John, but it seems to be more confusing than that. Both kermes and cochineal come from scale insects. Kermes, as you note, has an ancient history in Old World: as the saying goes, and as you note, the Greeks had a word for it. The dye from the New World scale insects (cochineal) is much more readily and profitably collected than kermes. And some think that the color is better. Doesn't the word cochineal refer specifically to the product obtained from the New World scale cultivated by the Aztecs and exploited so successfully by the Spanish? The cochineal trade in Europe is probably nearly five hundred years old: like the Tigridia, cochineal must have been one of the first of the new things to arrive in Europe from the New World. Jim McKenney Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, USDA zone 7, where we are all red faced this morning, and it has nothing to do with either embarrassment or cochineal: it's the nearly unbearable heat and humidity.