Abstract
The superfamily Psylloidea includes numerous species which play a key role in Australian ecology and biodiversity, as well as pests and biological control agents, and sometimes threatened species of conservation concern. Different psyllid sampling and collection techniques are usually performed depending on the nature and aim of the study: from the beating and sweeping of psyllid host plants for conservation and biodiversity assessment, to suction and sticky traps in agriculture. Due to a general lack of information on its efficacy for psyllids, however, light trapping has not usually been employed. Here we present the results obtained trapping psyllids using different light sources and we discuss the strengths and weaknesses of this technique to assess psyllid biodiversity. In particular, we highlight the strength of using this methodology paired with DNA barcoding, to cast some light on psyllid biodiversity. The results obtained here suggest that the psyllid fauna of Australia is heavily understudied and the number of undescribed species might be many times higher than previously expected. Additionally, we report, for the first time, the species Trioza adventicia Tuthill 1952, and Cryptoneossa triangula Taylor 1990 in the state of Queensland.
Highlights
Psyllids, known as jumping plant lice, belong to the superfamily Psylloidea (Hemiptera: Sternorrhyncha), grouped into more than 3800 species recognized worldwide [1]
While light trapping is widely known to be a useful tool for insect collections and biodiversity assessments, scarce data was found in the literature about psyllids trapped using light sources
While light isfact widely known to be usefulentomologists tool for insect collections andtobiodiversity collect them from their host plants, since species descriptions are greatly enhanced by valuable, and assessments, scarce data was found in the literature about psyllids trapped using light sources
Summary
Known as jumping plant lice, belong to the superfamily Psylloidea (Hemiptera: Sternorrhyncha), grouped into more than 3800 species recognized worldwide [1]. The Australian psyllid fauna includes important pest species for forestry as the agents of eucalypt dieback, e.g., in the genera Cardiaspina [5,6] and Glycaspis [7], especially G. brimblecombei Moore, that has been accidentally introduced in non-native countries [8]. It includes species of conservation significance, such as those co-threatened on threatened host plants, such as Acizzia hughesae Taylor and Moir, A. mccarthyi. Only in the last decade have psyllid studies spanned from biodiversity assessments and regional checklists [11,12,13], to phylogenetic studies [14,15], to new taxonomic species descriptions [16,17,18,19,20], research on insect host-plant interactions [21] and to molecular and genomic analyses focusing on psyllids-bacteria interactions [22,23]
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