No. 34. 



HEMIPTERA OF CONNECTICUT: PSYLLIDAE. 



43 



Family PSYLLIDAE (or CHERMIDAE). 

 By Edith Marion Patch, Ph.D. 



The psyllids have something the appearance of miniature 

 Cicadas. They come very near the aphids in their feeding habits, 

 occurring for the most part on stem or leaf of plants, sometimes 

 exposed but usually protected by flocculent wax secretion or by a 

 deformation of the part of the plant affected and often in a definite 

 gall. They are sometimes called "jumping plantlice" as their hind 

 legs are formed for leaping. Perhaps the average size for the 

 New England species would be about four or five millimeters in 

 length though the different species vary from shorter to longer 

 than that. The details of their structure make them a very fasci- 

 nating group for microscopic study. Their feeding habits cause 

 such species as appear on economic vegetation in large numbers 

 to be rated as pests which need to be reckoned with. For the most 

 part there is nothing erratic in their life cycles and both sexes 

 appear with each generation. They are oviparous. 



Lower 

 plate 



Fig. 21. Psyllid structures: (1) head, front view; (2) cauda of female, 

 lateral view; (3) cauda of male, rear view; (4) cauda of male, lateral 

 view. All greatly enlarged. Drawing by Dr. Edith M. Patch. 



Key to Genera. 



Head not or scarcely deflexed ; genae without conical process .... 2 



Head deflexed ; genal cones present 3 



Eyes flattened ; cephalic portion of head thin . . ._ Livia, p. 244 



Eyes more or less hemispherical; cephalic portion of head thick 



Aphalara, p. 244 

 Wing with M and Cu separating distad from point of juncture with 

 R. Fig. 24 4 



