This dye-insect is common to the coast of the Mediterranean and probably also found in the Zagros Mountains in Iran . It is a parasite of the kermes oak, Quercus coccifera, an evergreen, bush-like tree. These are the females, which in June release up to 800 larvae, which seek appropriate places for themselves on the kermes oak, pass the winter, and then in spring begin their parasitic sucking and quickly mature.The adult, pea-sized insects have no legs or eyes. The raw material for kermes dye consists of the dried females filled with their unborn larvae.
