HEMIPTERA

About

HEMIPTERA

Florida receives 2–3 new invasive arthropod species each month, and many of them have potential to establish and cause damage to Florida agriculture. Scale insects are one of the most diverse pest groups with over 380 species in Florida, of which, almost half of them are global pests.

The scale insect collection at the Florida State Collection of Arthropods (FSCA) plays an important role in scale insect diagnostics that leads to proper regulation and management of scale insects in Florida. Until recently, the scale insect collection was separated into three parts. In the past two years these collections have been merged, unlabeled slides have been labelled, and the entire collection has been curated.

The FSCA is the largest collection of scale insect slides in the southeastern United States and the third largest in the country, based on the number of specimens and species. This page is to draw attention to scale insect collection so that others can benefit from it.

HEMIPtera

PHOTO COLLECTION