Psyllid from Amelanchier gall - Trioza aylmeriae

Moved

… Chris Mallory, 23 December, 2016 - 5:12pm

Trioza aylmeriae

Awesome! I'm very glad you found a male. Females in the frontalis group tend to all look the same, but the shape of the proctiger, with its exceptionally long caudal lobe, sets this species apart from all others.

This is also a pretty exciting find because T. aylmeriae was one of just a couple members of the frontalis group for which the host plant wasn't definitively known. All other members of the group use Amelanchier, and so I speculated that so too would this species, so its great to see your finding confirm that. I'm also very interested in the nature of the gall.

I've only identified one other live photo series of this species before, from Carroll Perkins on flickr. But despite my suggestion, she never ended up sharing them on bugguide, and as such this is a new one for the guide. Great work.

… Chris Mallory, 23 December, 2016 - 4:52pm

Very cool!

The galls are small, stunted leaves, which remain folded to form pouches that the nymphs develop inside. Are the other species in this group gall formers? I have some photos of nymphs from similar galls, but collected at another site so I can't be certain they're the same species unless the other Amelanchier psyllids don't make galls like this. I preserved a few of those nymphs, as well at least one last-instar shed skin from the collection that produced the adults, so it may be possible to link the two collections that way.

… Charley Eiseman, 23 December, 2016 - 5:26pm

Very little seems to be published on the nymphs

Of T. obtusa, which is the only other known eastern member of the group, the nymphs aren't known to produce galls and instead are recognizable by their long waxy filaments like such:

Of T. frontalis, a western species, Klyver writes that the nymphs are unaccompanied by such wax, but little else. I haven't seen anything written on nymphs of the other 4 western species.

… Chris Mallory, 23 December, 2016 - 5:43pm