CreatureData

Cactus scale

Diaspis echinocacti (Bouché, 1833)

Status not recordedinsects

The cactus scale (Diaspis echinocacti) is a species in the family Diaspididae, order Hemiptera. Source checklists list it for 64 countries, including Algeria, Argentina and Armenia.

No freely licensed photo yet

Quick facts about the cactus scale

Weight
Not recorded
Length
Not recorded
Lifespan
Not recorded
Main food
Not recorded
Habitat
Not recorded
Young per litter or clutch
Not recorded
Conservation status
Not recorded
Countries on record
64 countriessrc for Countries on record

Where does the cactus scale live?

Countries where Catalogue of Life checklists list the species. Many checklists carry no country data, so the list is often incomplete. It is not a range map.

The cactus scale is listed for 64 countries.

Papua New GuineaIndonesiaArgentinaChileKenyaHaitiRussiaBahamasSouth AfricaMexicoUruguayBrazilPeruGuyanaFrancePuerto RicoJamaicaCubaCameroonGuineaMozambiqueIsraelMadagascarTunisiaAlgeriaIraqVietnamSouth KoreaIndiaPakistanTurkmenistanIranArmeniaPolandHungaryRomaniaLithuaniaGermanyGreeceTurkeyCroatiaLuxembourgNetherlandsPortugalSpainNew CaledoniaChinaTaiwanItalyDenmarkGeorgiaJapanCyprusMoroccoEgyptTrinidad and Tobago
  • Listed
  • Not listed
small islands are not drawn at this scale

The same countries as a list

  1. Algeria
  2. Argentina
  3. Armenia
  4. Bahamas
  5. Barbados
  6. Brazil
  7. Cameroon
  8. Cape Verde
  9. Chile
  10. China
  11. Croatia
  12. Cuba
  13. Curaçao
  14. Cyprus
  15. Denmark
  16. Egypt
  17. France
  18. Georgia
  19. Germany
  20. Gibraltar
  21. Greece
  22. Guinea
  23. Guyana
  24. Haiti
  25. Hungary
  26. India
  27. Indonesia
  28. Iran
  29. Iraq
  30. Israel
  31. Italy
  32. Jamaica
  33. Japan
  34. Kenya
  35. Lithuania
  36. Luxembourg
  37. Madagascar
  38. Malta
  39. Mauritius
  40. Mexico
Show 24 more countries
  1. Morocco
  2. Mozambique
  3. Netherlands
  4. New Caledonia
  5. Pakistan
  6. Papua New Guinea
  7. Peru
  8. Poland
  9. Portugal
  10. Puerto Rico
  11. Romania
  12. Russia
  13. South Africa
  14. South Korea
  15. Spain
  16. St. Helena
  17. Taiwan
  18. Trinidad & Tobago
  19. Tunisia
  20. Türkiye
  21. Turkmenistan
  22. U.S. Virgin Islands
  23. Uruguay
  24. Vietnam

Why a country list is not a range map

Where has it been introduced?

The Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species lists the cactus scale as introduced in 7 countries.

  1. Canary Islands
  2. Cyprus
  3. Denmark
  4. France
  5. Japan
  6. Poland
  7. United States

Introduced means brought by people and now present; invasive means the country's checklist records an impact. A species can be native to one part of a country and introduced in another. Source: Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species (CC BY 4.0).

Is the cactus scale endangered?

No conservation assessment is recorded for this species in our sources. That is not the same as being safe: it has not been matched to an assessment.

How is the cactus scale classified?

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. phylumArthropoda
  3. classInsecta
  4. orderHemiptera
  5. familyDiaspididae
  6. genusDiaspis
  7. SpeciesDiaspis echinocacti (Bouché, 1833)

Synonyms Aspidiotus calyptroides, Aspidiotus echinocacti, Carulaspis calyptroides, Chermes echinocacti, Chionaspis cacti, Coccus echinocacti, Coccus luteus, Diaspis cacti, Diaspis cacti opunticola, Diaspis cacti subsp. opuntiae, Diaspis calyptroides, Diaspis calyptroides cacti, Diaspis calyptroides opuntiae, Diaspis dactylproides, Diaspis echinocacti cacti, Diaspis echinocacti opuntiae, Diaspis luteus, Diaspis opuntiae, Diaspis opunticola, Diplacaspis echinocacti

Other names and names in other languages (14)
  • Prickly pear scaleEnglish
  • štítenka kaktusováCzech
  • KaktusskjoldlusDanish
  • escama del nopalSpanish
  • cochenille des cactéesFrench
  • サボテンシロカイガラムシJapanese
  • 선인장깍지벌레Korean
  • cochonilha de escama da palma forrageiraPortuguese
  • Щитовка кактусоваяRussian
  • štítnička kaktusováSlovak
  • Dikenli Kaktüs Kabuklu BitiTurkish
  • saboten-maru-kaigaramushiroot
  • 仙人掌盾介殼蟲Chinese
  • cochenillé des cactéesFrench

Catalogue of Life

Relatives of the cactus scale

Other species in the same genus Diaspis.

Cocos scale

Diaspis boisduvalii

DiaspididaeNo free photo yet

Cocos scale

Diaspis coccois

DiaspididaeNo free photo yet

CompareCactus scale vs Cocos scaleCactus scale vs Pineapple scaleCactus scale vs Cocos scaleCactus scale vs Gillogly scale

Common questions

Answered only where our data holds the answer.

Where does the cactus scale live?

Catalogue of Life checklists list the cactus scale for 64 countries, including Algeria, Argentina, Armenia, Bahamas and Barbados. Checklist coverage is uneven, so the true range may be wider.

Is the cactus scale an invasive species?

The Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species lists the cactus scale as introduced in 7 countries, including Canary Islands, Cyprus, Denmark, France and Japan, but does not flag it as invasive in any of them.

What kind of animal is the cactus scale?

The cactus scale (Diaspis echinocacti) belongs to the family Diaspididae in the order Hemiptera.

Sources and how to cite this page

Data as of 2026-11-13. How this page is put together.

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APA

CreatureData. (2026). Cactus scale (Diaspis echinocacti). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/cactus-scale

MLA

“Cactus scale (Diaspis echinocacti).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/cactus-scale.

BibTeX
@misc{cactus_scale_2026,
  title = {Cactus scale (Diaspis echinocacti)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/cactus-scale},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-13}
}