''Haplaxius crudus'' is a planthopper species in the genus '' Haplaxius''. ''H. crudus'' is the vector of the coconut

lethal yellowing Lethal yellowing (LY) is a phytoplasma disease that attacks many species of palms, including some commercially important species, such as the coconut and date palm. In the Caribbean, it is spread by the planthopper '' Haplaxius crudus'' (former ...

/16SrIV-A.Brown, S.E., Been, B.O. & McLaughlin, W.A. (2006). Detection and variability of the lethal yellowing group (16Sr IV) phytoplasmas in the ''Cedusa'' sp. (Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha: Derbidae) in Jamaica. ''Annals of Applied Biology'', 149(1), pp. 53–62

Range

Throughout the

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

and in

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

Hosts

The

nymph A nymph (; ; sometimes spelled nymphe) is a minor female nature deity in ancient Greek folklore. Distinct from other Greek goddesses, nymphs are generally regarded as personifications of nature; they are typically tied to a specific place, land ...

s are found on over 40 species of

Poaceae Poaceae ( ), also called Gramineae ( ), is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos, the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivate ...

and

Cyperaceae The Cyperaceae () are a family of graminoid (grass-like), monocotyledonous flowering plants known as wikt:sedge, sedges. The family (biology), family is large; botanists have species description, described some 5,500 known species in about 90 ...

in the

Neotropical The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropical terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperate zone. Definition In biogeogra ...

. In urban

habitats they prefer St. Augustine grass. Adults feed exclusively on the foliage of 30 species of

Arecaceae The Arecaceae () is a family (biology), family of perennial plant, perennial, flowering plants in the Monocotyledon, monocot order Arecales. Their growth form can be climbing palm, climbers, shrubs, tree-like and stemless plants, all commonly k ...

. Adults seem to prefer ''

Cocos nucifera The coconut tree (''Cocos nucifera'') is a member of the palm tree family (Arecaceae) and the only living species of the genus ''Cocos''. The term "coconut" (or the archaic "cocoanut") can refer to the whole coconut palm, the seed, or the f ...

'' but that may be due to observations being made around plantations, where surrounding grass provides a good combination of habitats for both nymphs and adults. Have been known since at least 1978 as the most common insect on ''C. nucifera'' in Florida and

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

As a vector

Vector Vector most often refers to: * Euclidean vector, a quantity with a magnitude and a direction * Disease vector, an agent that carries and transmits an infectious pathogen into another living organism Vector may also refer to: Mathematics a ...

of lethal yellowing/16SrIV-A

phytoplasma Phytoplasmas are obligate intracellular parasites of plant phloem tissue and of the insect vectors that are involved in their plant-to-plant transmission. Phytoplasmas were discovered in 1967 by Japanese scientists who termed them mycoplasma-li ...

Economic impact

Has transmitted the LY responsible for the deaths of millions of ornamental and farmed palms throughout the Caribbean. Note that in the absence of a phytoplasma to vector, does not damage host palms.

Management

Replacement of nymph host populations in nurseries with anything non-

monocot Monocotyledons (), commonly referred to as monocots, (Lilianae ''sensu'' Chase & Reveal) are flowering plants whose seeds contain only one Embryo#Plant embryos, embryonic leaf, or cotyledon. A monocot taxon has been in use for several decades, but ...

diazinon Diazinon (IUPAC name: ''O'',''O''-Diethyl ''O''- -methyl-6-(propan-2-yl)pyrimidin-2-ylphosphorothioate, INN - Dimpylate), a colorless to dark brown liquid, is a thiophosphoric acid ester developed in 1952 by Ciba-Geigy, a Swiss chemical company ...

application on nymph hosts, and systemic dimethoate injection of the adult hosts.

References

External links

Insects described in 1907 Insect vectors of plant pathogens Taxa named by Edward Payson Van Duzee Oecleini Insects of the Caribbean {{Fulgoromorpha-stub