PEST PROFILES: PSYLLIDS

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Potato Psyllids Yaupon Psyllids Click on image to view larger.

Psyllids Description: Adults, also called "jumping plant lice", resemble tiny cicadas. Adult potato or tomato psyllids are about 1/10 inch long, greenish to black, have a white fringe band around the first abdomen and clear wings held over the back when at rest. Galls produced by aphid-like immature instars appear as folded leaves on new, terminal growth. Immature Yaupon psyllid nymphs are inside these galls and are associated with a buildup of waxy filaments. Damage: Potato or tomato psyllids can injure plants such as potato or tomato crops when they occur in high numbers. Yaupon psyllid cause pocket-like galls that deform and stunt new growth of Yaupon hollies. Life cycle: Yellow-orange, bean-shaped eggs on short stalks are oviposited by females on the undersurface of leaves. Nymphs hatch from eggs in 4 to 15 days. They develop through 5 instars in 2 to 3 weeks before becoming winged adults. Yaupon psyllid gall females oviposit clusters of eggs on opening leaf buds. First instar nymphs begin feeding on expanding leaves, which causes the leaf to deform. There is 1 generation per year.