Psyllidae | |
---|---|
Hackberry psyllid – Pachysylla sp. | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Arthropoda |
Class: | Insecta |
Order: | Hemiptera |
Suborder: | Sternorrhyncha |
Superfamily: | Psylloidea |
Family: |
Psyllidae Latreille, 1807 |
Genera | |
Acizzia |
Acizzia
Agonoscena
Allocaridara
Arytainilla
Blastopsylla
Boreioglycaspis
Cacopsylla
Cryptoneossa
Ctenarytaina
Diaphorina
Eucalyptolyma
Euphyllura
Glycaspis
Heteropsylla
Prosopidopsylla
Psylla
Psyllopsis
Retroacizzia
Tetragonocephela
and others (see text)
Jumping plant lice or psyllids form the family Psyllidae of small plant-feeding insects that tend to be very host-specific, i.e. each plant-louse species only feeds on one plant species (monophagous) or feeds on a few closely related plants (oligophagous). Together with aphids, phylloxerans, scale insects and whiteflies, they form the group called Sternorrhyncha, which is considered to be the most "primitive" group within the true bugs (Hemiptera). They have traditionally been considered a single family, Psyllidae, but recent classifications divide the group into a total of seven families; the present restricted definition still includes more than 70 genera in the Psyllidae. Psyllid fossils have been found from the early Permian before the flowering plants evolved. The explosive diversification of the flowering plants in the Cretaceous was paralleled by a massive diversification of associated insects, and many of the morphological and metabolic characters that the flowering plants exhibit may have evolved as defenses against herbivorous insects.