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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Hexapods (Hexapoda) » Insects (Insecta) » True Bugs, Cicadas, Hoppers, Aphids and Allies (Hemiptera) » Plant-parasitic Hemipterans (Sternorrhyncha) » Psylloidea » Psyllidae » Aphalaroidinae » Aphalaroida

Genus Aphalaroida

Classification · Explanation of Names · Numbers · Size · Identification · Range · Food · See Also · Print References · Works Cited

Tiny hopper on mesquite - Aphalaroida spinifera

Aphalaroida inermis? Male? - Aphalaroida inermis - male

Aphalaroida spinifera? - Aphalaroida spinifera - male

Aphalaroida? Female? - Aphalaroida spinifera - female

Aphalaroida pithecolobia? Female - Aphalaroida pithecolobia - female

Classification

Kingdom Animalia (Animals)

Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)

Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)

Class Insecta (Insects)

Order Hemiptera (True Bugs, Cicadas, Hoppers, Aphids and Allies)

Suborder Sternorrhyncha (Plant-parasitic Hemipterans)

Superfamily Psylloidea

Family Psyllidae

Subfamily Aphalaroidinae

Genus Aphalaroida

Explanation of Names

Aphalaroida Crawford, 1914

Numbers

8 spp. in our area, 9 total(1)

Size

less than 3mm

Identification

Forewings short, rhomboidal, often patterned, with pterostigma present. Genae slightly swollen beneath vertex, not conical; Antennae short, between 0.6 and 1.4 times as long as the width of the head. Head, thorax, and forewings often covered with conspicuous glandular hairs. Upon emergence color is pallid throughout, becoming darker and wing pattern developing as the insect matures. The wing maculation is often variable within a single species and thus is not typically sufficient for species-level identification (Hodkinson 2001)

Overview of species based primarily on forewing characters, adapted from on Hodkinson (2001):

Forewing and vertex covered with glandular hairs:

P. spinifera - costal break absent, FW apex broadly rounded, glandular hairs very long

P. rauca - costal break absent, FW apex acute, rhomboidal, glandular hairs short

P. prosopis - costal break present, costal margin straight, vein Rs bent sharply at apex, cell Cu1a short and tall

P. pithecolobia - costal break present, costal margin gently convex, vein Rs straight at apex, cell Cu1a long and less tall

Forewing and vertex appearing glabrous:

P. california, P. inermis, P. acaciae, P. masonici

Range

sw. US & FL to Costa Rica(1)

Food

Acacia & Prosopis (Fabaceae: Mimosoideae)

See Also

Heteropsylla spp. also occur on Mimosoid legumes and are found across the same range, though the two genera are easily distinguishable.

Print References

Hodkinson, I.D. 2001. New World legume-feeding psyllids of the genus Aphalaroida Crawford (Insecta: Homoptera: Psylloidea), Journal of Natural History, 25:5, 1281-1296

Works Cited

1.	Ouvrard D. (2013) Psyl'list - The World Psylloidea Database

Contributed by v belov on 28 August, 2013 - 6:44pm
Additional contributions by Chris Mallory
Last updated 20 May, 2016 - 9:02pm

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