Cacopsylla fuscicella Sp. Nov. (Hemiptera, Psyllidae), a New Loquat Pest in China

Abstract

Psylloidea, commonly known as jumping plant-lice, have a phloem-sucking habit and strong specificity to their host plants. Within the Psyllidae family, the genus Cacopsylla Ossiannilsson, 1970 stands out as being the most diverse, with three species feeding on the genus Eriobotrya Lindl. In this study, a new psyllid species, Cacopsylla fuscicella sp. nov., was described from China. It is a pest of Eriobotrya japonica (Thunb.) Lindl. and has been cultivated as a commercial fruit tree for years. Illustrations of habitus, morphological structures, and its damage to loquat were also provided. The complete mitochondrial genome of C. fuscicella sp. nov. was sequenced and annotated. The phylogenetic tree inferred from the maximum likelihood analyses confirmed C. fuscicella sp. nov. as a member of the genus Cacopsylla. Genetic distances were generated to assess comparative genetic distances within Psyllinae.