Open Access

Nereida Mestre Novoa, Greg S. Hodges, Avas Hamon, Takumasa Kondo, Pedro Herrera Oliver, María del Carmen Marquetti Herrera, Arturo Hernández Marrero

• At Topes de Collantes Natural Park, Alturas de Trinidad, in the mountains of Guamuhaya province of Sancti Spiritus, Cuba, 30 species of scale insects belonging to 21 genera, four families and an endemic species were identifi ed. Specimens were deposited at the insect zoological collection of the Ecology and Systematics Institute (CZACC), Cuba. A literature review was carried out and the world data base on scale insects, ScaleNet was consulted. A cartographic map indicating the collecting sites at the scale of 1: 250,000 was created using MapInfo Professional Version 4.5 program. Twelve species are recorded for the fi rst time for the mountains of Guamuhaya and further 10 species are recorded for other locations. 82% of the species were polyphagous, 11% were oligophagous and 7% were monophagous. 57% were introduced species, 43% were native and 79% are cosmopolitan or widely distributed species. 30 species and 21 families of host plants were identifi ed, of which 23 plant species were new host plant records for 19 scale insect species, and 11 botanical families are for the fi rst time recorded as hosts for 10 scale insect species. There were signifi cant differences in the distribution of scale insects and their host plant species, botanical families and vegetation type.