Mitrapsylla cubana Crawford, 1914

Halbert, Susan E. & Burckhardt, Daniel, 2020, The psyllids (Hemiptera: Psylloidea) of Florida: newly established and rarely collected taxa and checklist, Insecta Mundi 2020 (788), pp. 1-88 : 51-52

Mitrapsylla cubana Crawford, 1914

Materials examined. USA: Florida: Specimens from Highlands, Hillsborough, Miami-Dade, and Polk counties ( FSCA, dry and slide mounted).

Diagnosis. Forewings are hyaline, sometimes weakly fumate. The lines on the head and thorax are dull yellow and not calloused.

Distribution. Neotropics ( Brazil, Cuba, Mexico, Panama, Puerto Rico) ( Ouvrard 2020), USA (FL) (new record for FL and the USA reported here).

Host plants. Desmodium Desv. spp. ( Fabaceae ).

Comments. Mitrapsylla cubana has been known from Florida for a long time, but it is rarely collected except in traps. At the USNM, there are specimens from “Arrocera, Florida” (no host information) collected on “ 17.iv.1957, J. Acuna.” This location actually is in Cuba (see note under Heteropsylla fusca for details). Thus, the first confirmed USA record is represented by an FSCA specimen from Archbold Biological Station (Highlands County) collected by H.V. Weems and Thomas A. Webber in an insect flight trap on 5.xi.1979. The USNM has specimens that were collected from Ft. Pierce, FL, by A.E. Kretschmer in March 1980 from Desmodium heterocarpon (L.) DC. ( Fabaceae ) in a greenhouse. Stray adults were collected twice on Euthamia graminifolia by DPI inspector Kenneth L. Hibbard in Port St. Lucie on 8.xii.2003 (FSCA# E2003-6307) and in Lorida (Highlands County) on 19.xi.2002 (FSCA# E2002-5702). This species was described from Cuba and occurs in Brazil, Mexico, Panama and Puerto Rico, where the host plants are Desmodium spp. ( Brown and Hodkinson 1988). We have suction trap collected specimens from nearly all the traps we have utilized. Judging by the number of trap collections over the years, M. cubana is common in Florida, but it is collected rarely on its host plants. Based on suction trap collections, flight activity occurs mostly, if not exclusively, in winter months; however, the two early host-associated collections occurred in March and April. Even though this psyllid has been known for decades in Florida, it was never reported formally, probably because “Arrocera, Florida” was assumed to be in the USA.

Macrocorsinae Vondráček, 1963 Euphalerus Schwarz, 1904