With almost 200 identified species of butterflies and moths (at least 28 endemic), Cuba is a lepidopterist’s paradise. You can barely stand still for one minute without checking off a dozen dazzling species: the transparent Cuban clear-wing butterfly, metallic gold monarchs, delicate black-winged heliconius splashed with bright red and yellow, the scintillating yellow orange-barred sulphur, and huge swallowtails fluttering and diving in a ballet of stupendous color.
At dusk the air trills with the sound of cicadas (cigarras), while fireflies flit by all atwinkle with phosphorescence.
Hosts of unfriendly bugs also exists: chiggers, wasps and bees, mosquitoes, and the famous “no-see-ums” (jejenes).