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Family Psyllidae
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This page contains pictures and information about Clam Lerp Insects that we
found in the Brisbane area, Queensland, Australia.
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 - Diameter
5mm
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Clam Lerp Insects
are sap suckers and often aggregate in colonies. They insert their
stylets, or mouthparts, into the plant and begin feeding and constructing a
lerp, the protection cover. Lerps are formed from the sugar and wax excreted
by the insects. Those materials harden on contact with air to form the
protection.
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The protective cover lerps are vary in size. They are in bivalves shape and
creamy yellow in colour. They are constructed by the addition of concentric layers of exudation.
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2nd and 4th instars
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5th instars
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- The lerp is mostly transparent. Young instars
is in creamy write and the 5th instars is pale red in colour.
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The nymph body colour should be creamy to pale red in colour. The nymphs in
the above photos are darken and poorly developed. They could be parasited.
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Host Plant
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- Host plant, Silver-leafed Ironbark Gumtree, Eucalyptus
melanophloia
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- The
Clam Lerp Insects are common on Silver-leafed Ironbark Gumtree in
Brisbane Karawatha Forest.
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- Reference:
- 1. Psylloidea of South Australia - Morgan, F.D. ,Adelaide, South Australia, Government Printer,
1984, plate 16,17.
- 2. Additional
information on the Australian genera of the family Psyllidae (Hemiptera:
Homoptera) - Taylor, K.L. Australian Journal of Zoology 8(3) 383 - 391,
1960.
- 3. The Australian genera
Cardiaspina Crawford and Hyalinaspis Taylor (Homoptera: Psyllidae) - Taylor, K.L. Australian Journal of Zoology 10: 307-348 [338-347] 1962.
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