Hackberry Nipplegall Maker – Pachypslla celtidismamma

Hackberry Nipplegall Maker (Pachypsylla celtidismamma)

 

Latin Name: Pachypsylla celtidismamma

Common Name: Hackberry nipplegall make

Appearance:

• Hackberry nipple gall, a kind of psyllid (SILL id) insect. Nipple galls occur as tissue swellings on leaves or petioles that range in size from 1/8 to 1/4 inch.
• Adult psyllids have the appearance of small (3/16 inch long) cicadas and can be plentiful in the fall.
• They may infiltrate homes around this time to avoid the cold, typically creeping through window screening. These insects can be bothersome, but they do not bite or cause injury.

Hosts plants: Sugarberry (Celtis laevigata ), American or Common hackberry

(Celtis occidentalis), Net-leaf hackberry (Celtis reticulate )

Territory: throughout North America

Damage caused by Hackberry Nipplegall Maker:

The hackberry nipplegall psyllid develops large warty leaf galls that cover the leaf completely. High degrees of galling are generally limited to a few branches and do not cause significant harm. On the other hand, the galls are sometimes seen to be unsightly. The pale-yellow nymphs can be seen among the galls until they emerge in early fall.

Description about Leafminers:

Leafminer adults are tiny flies that are 0.1 inches (2.5 mm) in length, are black to blue, and have yellow portions on their thorax, legs, and abdomen. At the base of the wings, there is usually a noticeable yellow area. The tiny white eggs are placed just beneath the epidermis of the leaf and hatch in 4 to 6 days. Pupation takes place in mines or underground. The life cycle takes roughly 23 days throughout the summer. Every year, there are three to five generations. Leafminers occasionally afflict beans. In most cases, their deterioration happens around the end of the producing season. The larvae eat between the upper and lower leaf surfaces, resulting in large whitish blotches or, in the instance of serpentine leafminers, thin, white, winding trails into the leaf’s core. Leafminers generate dark, necrotic patches on the leaves of lima beans.

Life History and Habits:

In the adult stage, common leaf gall-forming species overwinter in cracks and fissures in the bark. Females deposit eggs on the underside of growing leaves after mating in the spring. Nymphs hatch from eggs in around ten days and begin eating, causing leaf tissue to swell rapidly into a pouch or gall around the bug. Although the hackberry bud gall maker overwinters inside the gall as a final stage (5th instar) nymph and emerges as an adult in early June, nymphs mature through multiple stages (instars) before emerging as adults in the fall (September). Every year, a new generation is born.