
Open-access, online, rapid taxonomy
ISSN: 2653-4649 (Online)
Australian Journal of

Taxonomy
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Integrative and accelerated taxonomy recognises a new species of Psyllaephagus (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae), parasitic on Lasiopsylla striata (Hemiptera: Psyllidae) from Australia.
Alana R. McClelland, Andrew D. Austin, Juanita Rodriguez, Steven J. B. Cooper, Erinn P. Fagan-Jeffries.
Author details ⏷
Alana R. McClelland [1*], Andrew D. Austin [1], Juanita Rodriguez [3], Steven J. B. Cooper [1,2], Erinn P. Fagan-Jeffries [1,2].
[1] Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Adelaide 5005, South Australia, Australia
[2] South Australian Museum, North Terrace, Adelaide 5000, South Australia, Australia
[3] The Australian National Insect Collection, CSIRO, Canberra 2601, Australian Capital Territory, Australia.
Abstract
The current taxonomic framework for describing new species of Psyllaephagus in Australia is largely intractable, mainly due to damaged or missing types and, as such, the genus has been neglected for almost 40 years. The repercussions of this include an absence of accurate host association records among Psyllaephagus and their hosts, several genera of which are lerp-forming psyllids that are ubiquitous on Eucalyptus spp. across Australia. In response, and to demonstrate the feasibility of robust and rapid species descriptions, here we describe a new species, Psyllaephagus iridis sp. nov. McClelland and the first record of a Eucalyptus host association for the psyllid Lasiopsylla striata Froggatt 1923, from a previously unsampled location. It is the first instance where an Australian species of Psyllaephagus is described from accurately recorded reared material. Molecular data is associated with the species for future studies and this, combined with diagnostic morphology, and high-resolution images, provides a description of a new species which demonstrates a comprehensive yet robust method for an accelerated taxonomic treatment of the Australian Psyllaephagus fauna.
Cite this paper as: McClelland AR, Austin AD, Rodriguez J, Cooper SJB & Fagan-Jeffries EP (2023). Integrative and accelerated taxonomy recognises a new species of Psyllaephagus (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae), parasitic on Lasiopsylla striata (Hemiptera: Psyllidae) from Australia.. Australian Journal of Taxonomy 17: 1–12. doi: https://doi.org/10.54102/ajt.szjz2
This paper was published on: 11/5/2023