Hornbeam Psyllid Nymph - Flickr - treegrow (1)

''Psylla'' (from the Greek ''psulla'', meaning

flea Flea, the common name for the order Siphonaptera, includes 2,500 species of small flightless insects that live as external parasites of mammals and birds. Fleas live by ingesting the blood of their hosts. Adult fleas grow to about long, a ...

) is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...

of sap-sucking insects belonging to the order Hemiptera. There are at least 110 described species in ''Psylla''. Species within the genus feed on various host plants. Some harmful species commonly known as flies belong to neighbouring genera, such as '' Cacopsylla'' (which includes most of the pyslla harmful to fruit trees), the Albizia fly (''

Acizzia jamatonica ''Acizzia'' is a genus of psyllids that primarily feed on ''Acacia'' and '' Albizia'' species. Many species are known from Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country compris ...

'', from the

Psyllidae Psyllidae, the jumping plant lice or psyllids, are a family of small plant-feeding insects that tend to be very host-specific, i.e. each plant-louse species only feeds on one plant species (monophagous) or feeds on a few closely related plants ( ...

family) and the laurel fly (''

Trioza alacris ''Trioza alacris'' is a sap-sucking hemipteran bug in the family ''Triozidae'' which creates galls on the leaves of ''Laurus'' species. It is found in Europe. Description of the gall ''Trioza alacris'' causes the edges of leaves to thicken and r ...

'').

Species and hosts

* '' Psylla alni'' feeds on

alder Alders are trees comprising the genus ''Alnus'' in the birch family Betulaceae. The genus comprises about 35 species of monoecious trees and shrubs, a few reaching a large size, distributed throughout the north temperate zone with a few sp ...

s * '' Psylla apicalis'' feeds on kowhai trees * '' Psylla betulae'' feeds on

birch A birch is a thin-leaved deciduous hardwood tree of the genus ''Betula'' (), in the family Betulaceae, which also includes alders, hazels, and hornbeams. It is closely related to the beech- oak family Fagaceae. The genus ''Betula'' contains 3 ...

es * '' Psylla buxi'' feeds on box (''

Buxus ''Buxus'' is a genus of about seventy species in the family Buxaceae. Common names include box or boxwood. The boxes are native to western and southern Europe, southwest, southern and eastern Asia, Africa, Madagascar, northernmost Sout ...

'' species) * '' Psylla cordata'' feeds on limes (''

Tilia ''Tilia'' is a genus of about 30 species of trees or bushes, native throughout most of the temperate Northern Hemisphere. The tree is known as linden for the European species, and basswood for North American species. In Britain and Ireland they ...

'' species) * '' Psylla frodobagginsi'' feeds on kowhai trees * '' Psylla oblonga'' feeds on '' Albizia odoratissima'' * '' Psylla pyri'' feeds on European pear trees

References

Psyllidae Psylloidea genera Taxa named by Étienne Louis Geoffroy {{Sternorrhyncha-stub

Species and hosts

See also

References