The Scale Insects (Hemiptera: Coccoidea) on Bamboos in the Western-Palearctic Region: New Records and Distributional Data. Acta zoologica. bulgarica, Suppl.

Bamboos were introduced into Europe from China and Japan in the early 1800s and their cultivation in parks and gardens became quite popular. The frst records of scale insects on ornamental bamboos in Europe date to early in the XX century (i.e. Kuwanaspis pseudoleucaspis), but the presence of some species was unknown until recently due to their concealed habit (i.e. Balanococcus kwoni Pellizzari & Danzig). More recently, the increasingly world-wide trade of ornamental bamboos has led to the incidental introduction and spread of bamboo scales far from their native land. Due to recent surveys carried out in parks, commercial centres and nurseries in the Western Palearctic, several scale insects linked to bamboos, not previously recorded, have been discovered, namely Pseudococcidae: Antonina pretiosa Ferris and Palmicultor lumpurensis (Takahashi) and Diaspididae: Batarasa lumampao Takagi, Odonaspis serrata Ben-Dov, Poliaspoides bambusae Ülgenturk & Pellizzari and Poliaspoides formosana (Takahashi). An overview of the presence, distribution and spread of other bamboo scale insects (i.e.Balanococcus kwoni, Chaetococcus bambusae (Maskell), Bambusaspis bambusae (Boisduval) Odonaspis greeni (Cockerell)) known from the Region is reported.