British Insects: the Families of Hemiptera
| British Insects: the Families of Hemiptera | |
Temporarily including Calophyidae, Homotomidae, Liviidae, Psyllidae s. str., Spondyliaspididae, Triozidae.
Jumping Plant Lice, Psyllids, Suckers.
Salient features of adults. Terrestrial; the insects dwelling under specially constructed shelters, in the form of scales or lerps.
Phytophagous. Tiny; 2–3 mm long; represented by ‘normal’ insects only; fliers; conspicuous jumpers; relatively stout bodied. Rostrum ostensibly originating between the front legs; not separated from the prosternum by a gula. Antennae longer than the head, readily visible from above; usually 10 segmented; non-aristate. Ocelli present (three); between the eyes. Fore-wings well developed; in the resting insect lying more or less flat over the abdomen; more or less uniform in texture; with transparent cells to with opaque cells; without costal fracture and cuneus; with a clavus. Tarsi 2 segmented; two-clawed.
Comments. Always fully winged; fore-wings firmer and larger than hind-wings; all the longitudinal fore-wing veins arising from a single, median stem; femora thickened.
Taxonomy. Suborder Homoptera. Sternorrhyncha. Psylloidea.
British representation. Genera 16; about 80 species.
Illustrations: • Livia juncorum (Rush Jumping-louse: B. Ent. 492). • Livia juncorum (detail: B. Ent. 492). • Livia juncorum (dissections: B. Ent. 492). • Livia juncorum (legend+text: B. Ent. 492). • Livia juncorum (text: B. Ent. 492, cont.). • Psyllopsis fraxini (Ash Jumping-louse: B. Ent. 565). • Psyllopsis fraxini (detail, dissections: B. Ent. 565). • Psyllopsis fraxini (legend+text: B. Ent. 565). • Psyllopsis fraxini (text: B. Ent. 565, cont.).
The interactive key offers full and partial descriptions, diagnostic descriptions, differences and similarities between taxa, lists of taxa exhibiting or lacking specified attributes, and distributions of character states within any set of taxa.
Cite this publication as: ‘Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M.J. 2003 onwards. British insects: the families of Hemiptera. Version: 9th April 2007. http://delta-intkey.com’.
