Two species of the genus Andaspis, Andaspis crawii (Cockerell) and Andaspis kashicola (Takahashi) are newly recorded in the Korean fauna of armored scales (Diaspididae). A key to species of Andaspis, illustrative photographs and information on the distribution and hosts of each species, are also provided to identify the specimens of Andaspis collected in Korea.

Although DNA barcode coverage has grown rapidly for many insect orders, there are some groups, such as scale insects, where sequence recovery has been difficult. However, using a recently developed primer set, we recovered barcode records from 373 specimens, providing coverage for 75 species from 31 genera in two families. Overall success was >90% for mealybugs and >80% for armored scale species. The G·C content was very low in most species, averaging just 16.3%. Sequence divergences (K2P) between congeneric species averaged 10.7%, while intraspecific divergences averaged 0.97%. However, the latter value was inflated by high intra-specific divergence in nine taxa, cases that may indicate species overlooked by current taxonomic treatments. Our study establishes the feasibility of developing a comprehensive barcode library for scale insects and indicates that its construction will both create an effective system for identifying scale insects and reveal taxonomic situations worthy of deeper analysis.

Seventy two species of armored scale have been recorded from the Korean peninsula since late 1920s. Nine of these species were obtained from greenhouses. Of these 9 armored scale species, 7 species are considered to have failed to colonize fields or greenhouses and 2 species, which were collected from pineapple plants, Tillandsia plants and cactus trees in greenhouses, were never taken from the exterior environment.