There are currently only about 1360 moth species on the list for Cuba. It is anyone's guess how many there really are but my punt would be that it is at least 50% more or even 100% more but that is only a wild guess. What is certain is that there is a great deal more to be discovered.
I have spent much of the last week uploading photographs kindly received from Rayner Núñez onto this website (and more still to add). I am very grateful for these and for those received from Douglas Fernández. They can be viewed by clicking on the Species>Other Wildlife>Moths tab above.
And as always if you have any good quality photographs that you would like to contribute then please get in touch. Likewise if you spot any errors in identification then please do let me know.

This was our last day of another great trip to Cuba. We had missed Hurricane Irma though sadly it taken its toll in Cuba making life even tougher for many of the lovely people who live there. We have seen 96 butterfly species in 3 weeks which is more than half of the total of resident species. There have been many highlights including the large number of Cuban Kite Swallowtail Protographium celadon which have been very hard to see on previous visits.

On our morning walk around the local tracks and trails we found there had been a fresh emergence of Antillean Crescent Antillea pelops and Impostor Duskywing Gesta gesta.

We are already finalising our next trip to Cuba in the summer and plan another later in the year but missing the main hurricane season this time. Our thanks go to all our friends out there that helped to make it such a great trip and to the new friends that we made.

A Prairie Warbler was in the trees at the front of the hotel as we went out this morning. The numbers of warblers that we are seeing only now seem to be increasing slightly as birds move south to their wintering grounds.

We got a taxi round to the Paradisus hotel and then walked along the edge of the forest which is the Parque Nacional Bahía de Naranjo. We saw several Gray Cracker Hamadryas februa and a Caribbean Banner Lucinia sida which have been surprisingly scarce on this trip. It seems their flight seasons are only just starting.

We also added two more species to the list for the trip in the form of a female Mexican Sailor Dynamine postverta and a Gold-spotted Aguna Aguna asander which flew past us along the track. This was not unexpected as we have seen them here before and a bit further along is the only Bauhinia bush that I know of in the area. It was difficult to access the bush this time as, following the hurricane, the Paradisus hotel have been dumping all their tree debris along the edge of the track. Bauhinia is the foodplant of the Aguna and although there was lots of feeding damage I couldn't see any larvae on this occasion.

We visited the small Las Guanas reserve today which lies just to the west of the Luna y Mares hotel. We always go here at least once during a trip but hadn’t managed it this time till now. There are little feeding stations along the trail where the fiddler crabs love to come and feed on what looks like crushed maize.

It was nice to see several Cuban Kite Swallowtail Eurytides celadon still. We have so far seen them on 15 of the 19 days and often in high numbers. There weren’t too many butterflies about but we found a Violet-banded Skipper Nyctelius nyctelius larva in a folded leaf shelter of grass which was a new species for the trip.

And a few Florida Duskywing Ephyriades brunnea were nectaring high up on small white flowers of a shrub which I don’t know the name of. And I spotted some feeding damage on the foodplant Stigmaphyllon which contained both eggs and a small larva. It also had eggs of a Cyclargus but I can’t tell whether it’s Nickerbean Blue Cyclargus ammon or Miami Blue Cyclargus thomasi.

We also found a Clouded Sulphur Phoebis sennae larva on Senna occidentalis and two Concolorous Skipper Burca concolor larvae on Croton. There are lots of different reptiles here on the reserve and we saw seven species during the morning.

At lunch there was a slow movement of whites and yellows flying east over the pool including a Lyside Sulphur Kricogonia lyside. We had arranged to meet Carlos later in the day where he took us to a friend’s garden near Holguin to look for reptiles. And what a great couple of hours it turned out to be. The owners kept a few chickens in cages that were moved around from time to time. Under various objects in the garden was a host of reptile food. There were lots of large cockroaches 2” long and lots of their eggs and young. We also saw two species of scorpion and several huge tarantula. This black scorpion was about 3” long and the other was smaller and more colourful.

But it was the reptiles that we came for and it didn’t disappoint. I didn’t know what many of them were at the time, and one of them I’m still not sure of, but others I have managed to identify since. And if I have got any wrong then I’m happy to be corrected. The list is:
Pholidoscelis auberi
Anolis argenteolus
Anolis jubar
Anolis lucius
Anolis porcatus??
Anolis sagrei
Hemidactylus mabouia
Leiocephalus carinatus
Leiocephalus macropus
Gonatodes albogularis
Sphaerodactylus argus
Sphaerodactylus nigropunctatus
Sphaerodactylus notatus
You can see more pictures of all these on the reptiles page.

One that I have only just identified seems to be Jamaican Stippled Sphaero (or Ocellated Sphaero) Sphaerodactylus argus. I hadn’t considered this previously as although it occurs in 11 provinces including over in the east of Holguín province this seems to be the first time it has been recorded near the city of Holguín.

This is the anole that I’m not sure of. It might be Cuban Green Anole Anolis porcatus but it might be something else, and there was also a smaller one that is perhaps a juvenile of the same species. It wasn’t until I looked at the photos later that I noticed the long-dead one.

Under one board there were lots of small hatched reptile eggs - perhaps Gonatodes as they looked a little large for the Sphaeros.

There was even a tiny frog Eleutherodactylus sp that I haven’t yet identified but I hope to by going through Díaz & Cádiz (2008). I wish I had given him/her a clean-up before taking the picture but there was so much going on there wasn't time for that.

We also spent a while searching by torchlight for the Prehensile-tailed Jutía Mysateles prehensilis which occurs in the spiny cactus hedges here but we had no luck on this occasion. It is a species of rodent in the family Capromyidae, one of many species endemic to Cuba. It is an arboreal herbivore found in both primary and secondary forest. This and Desmarest's Jutía Capromys pilorides are the only two species that are said to be still widespread on Cuba, many are already extinct.
What a brilliant few hours so thank you Carlos for arranging.