Heteropsylla cubana Crawford, 1914

Martoni, Francesco & Brown, Samuel D. J., 2018, An annotated checklist of the Cook Islands psyllids with keys to the species and two new records (Hemiptera, Psylloidea), ZooKeys 811, pp. 91-108 : 91

Heteropsylla cubana Crawford, 1914 Figure 25

Heteropsylla cubana Crawford, 1914.

Distribution.

Reported on the Cook Islands by Hodkinson (1983). Known only from Rarotonga. Other locations include: Australia ( Muddiman et al. 1992), America [Bahamas, Bermuda, Brazil, Central America, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, USA ( Brown and Hodkinson 1988, Burckhardt and Queiroz 2012, Hodkinson and White 1981, Hodkinson 1988, Hodkinson and Muddiman 1993, Muddiman et al. 1992, Olivares and Burckhardt 2002, Percy et al. 2012)], Africa [Burundi, Cameroon, Kenya, KwaZulu-Natal, Mauritius, Mpumalanga, Reunion, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe ( FAO 1994, Dzokou et al. 2009, Matimati et al. 2009, Muddiman et al. 1992, Olckers 2011)], Asia [Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Christmas Islands, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mariana Islands, Nepal, Ryukyu Islands, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam ( Muddiman et al. 1992, Martin and Lau 2011, Inoue and Miyatake 2001, Geiger and Gutierrez 2000)], Pacific Islands [Fiji, French Polynesia (Australs), Guam, Haiti, Hawaiian Islands, New Caledonia, Niue, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga ( Beardsley and Uchida 1990, Claridge et al. 2014, Muddiman et al. 1992, FAO 1994)], Europe [Ireland ( Muddiman et al. 1992)].

Host plant.

Leucaena leucocephala (Lam.) de Wit ( Fabaceae ).

Common name.

Leucaena psyllid ( Asadi et al. 2011).

Remarks.

Heterpsylla cubana is considered an agricultural pest both in the Asia-Pacific area and in Africa ( FAO 1994). The biological control agent that has been used most and with better results is the parasitoid Psyllaephagus yaseeni Noyes, 1990 ( Encyrtidae ), but Curinus coeruleus Mulsant, 1850 ( Coccinellidae ) and Tamarixia leucaenae Boucek, 1988 ( Eulophidae ) have been used as well ( Geiger and Gutierrez 2000).

Biology.

The biology and life cycle of H. cubana is reported here with the intent of summarising information (mostly from Showler and Melcher 1995 and CABI 1990) that may be relevant for a better understanding of this pest species. The incubation period for eggs is generally 2-5 days. Immature stages grow from the egg through five instars to adulthood in 10-20 days. Nymphs feed at first gregariously near the oviposition site and then, more and more solitarily, they colonise and feed on other parts of stems, branches, and petioles of young leaves. Generations are overlapping, and longevity of adults is on average 14.5 days for females and 9.7 days for males. Mating can occur more than once for both males and females ( Rauf et al. 1990) and eggs are laid in groups on very young shoots, often covering the whole leaflet. Each female can produce 300-500 eggs throughout a lifetime and can lay as many as 60 eggs in one day. Heteropsylla cubana is diurnal, and flight of adults can occur in the morning and afternoon.