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White Lerp Insect - Glycaspis (Glycaspis)
fuscovena or G. eucalypti
Family Psyllidae
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This page contains pictures and information about White Lerp Insects that we
found in the Brisbane area, Queensland, Australia.
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 - Diameter
3-4mm
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- The white
materials on gum leaves, known as lerps, are the coverings of insect nymphs
that live and feed underneath. The insects suck the plant sap and use the
excess starch to make those lerps. There are the excess sugar, or the
honey dews, that make the ants like to attend for them.
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- The Lerps Insect adults
are winged and look like a very small treehopper. Those White Lerps
can easily be found on different species of Gum tree leaves in Brisbane.
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- Different ant species were found attending the White Lerp
insects. They include the Golden-tailed
Spiny Ants, Large Purple Meat Ants
and Black Tyrant Ants.
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Eggs on leaf
 
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- Eggs were laid evenly on leaves in batch. The eggs are laid on the surface of the leaves, and the first
instars, having emerged and found a suitable site to feed, settles down and begins to construct the lerp. There are five instars each of which adds to the lerp, The last instars moves out from under the lerp before the adult emerges.
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Nymph outside lerp
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- Those
White Lerp Insects usually feed and hide under white lerp cover. Sometimes we
see a nymph freely walk around.
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- Reference:
- 1. A
field guide to insects in Australia - By Paul Zborowski and Ross
Storey, Reed New Holland, 1996, p85.
- 2. Psylloidea of South Australia - Morgan, F.D. ,Adelaide, South Australia, Government Printer,
1984, plate16-6 (G. fuscovena).
- 3. Species
Glycaspis (Glycaspis) fuscovena Moore, 1970 - Australian Biological Resources Study, Australian Faunal Directory.
- 4. Additional information on the Australian genera of the family Psyllidae (Hemiptera: Homoptera) - KL Taylor, Australian Journal of Zoology 8(3) 383 - 391,
1960 (G. eucalypti).
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