In November 2003, the Asian citrus psyllid (Diaphorina citri) was found for the first time in Costa Rica, in Alajuela, Heredia and San Jose provinces. Figure 1 shows an adult female and nymphal instars of Asiatic citrus psyllid

Godoy, Carolina

Hollis, David

Rivera, Carmen

Villalobos, William

English

Hochschulschriftenserver - Universität Frankfurt am Main

191 INSECTA MUNDI, Vol. 19, No. 3, September, 2005The Asian citrus psyllid (Diaphorina citri Ku-wayama (Psyllidae)) and the African citrus psyllid(Trioza erytreae (Del Guercio) (Triozidae)) are twoof the most serious pests of citrus in the world (Hoyand Nguyen 1998). The Asian citrus psyllid isusually found crowded on the lower sides of leaves,with the head almost touching the surface and thebody raised almost to a 30 degree angle. The great-est activity of this psyllid occurs simultaneous withnew citrus growth (Frank 1998). The Asian psyllidcauses leaf distortion and curling in young tendergrowth due to direct feeding damage and toxicsaliva (Hoy and Nguyen 1998); and a chlorosisresembling zinc deficiency, twig dieback and re-duced fruit size and quality, caused by the patho-genic phloem limited bacterium, Liberobacter asi-aticum, which it transmits. This disease is called“citrus greening” or “Huanglongbing”, which means“yellow dragon disease” (Halbert 1998). This bacte-rium occurs in many countries of tropical andsubtropical Asia and Africa (CABI and EPPO)Capoor et al. (1974) reported a high bacteriatransmission rate by tissue grafts, and also foundthat 4th and 5th instar nymphs and adults of D.citri could affect transmission. Adult psyllids wereable to transmit greening in a minimum infectionfeeding time of 15 minutes, but the percentage oftransmission was low under these conditions. Onehundred percent infection was obtained when thepsyllids fed for one hour or more on diseased plants.Diaphorina citri requires an incubation period ofabout 21 days to transmit the pathogen, and aftera short access feeding period (15-30 minutes) on adiseased plant, it retains the bacteria for life. Ca-poor et al. (1974) indicated that the pathogen mul-tiplied in the the psyllid vector and that there wasno transovarial transmission.The Asian psyllid was reported in Rio de Jan-eiro, Brazil, by Costa Lima (1942) and by Catling(1970). In June 1998, the insect was detected inFlorida and by September 2000  this pest hadspread to 31 Florida counties (Halbert 2001). Re-cently this species has also been reported fromMexico (Coronado-Blanco, J.M. and Ruiz-Cancino,E. 2004). In November 2003, the Asian citrus psyl-lid was found for the first time in Costa Rica, inAlajuela, Heredia and San Jose provinces. It wasfound on sweet lime (Citrus limetioides Tanaka),Sweet orange (Citrus sinensis (L.) Osb.), tangerine(Citrus reticulata Blanc.), pomelo (Citrus paradisiMacf.), and Persa lime (Citrus latifolia L.). Hondu-ras (Burckhardt and Martínez 1989) and Venezue-la (Cermeli et al. 2000) are the nearest countriesfrom which the Asian psyllid has been reported.The presence of the Asiatic citrus psyllid inCosta Rica is cause for concern since this insect isa vector of the bacteria causing Huanglongbingdisease, a bacterium recently reported from bothBrazil and Florida.References citedBurckhardt, D. and M. Martínez. 1989. Notessur la presénce au Honduras d‘un redoutableennemi des citrus: Diaphorina citri KuwayamaFirst report of Diaphorina citri (Hemiptera: Psyllidae) in Costa Rica.William VillalobosCentro de Investigación en Biología Celular y MolecularUniversidad de Costa RicaDavid HollisThe Natural History Museum, LondonCarolina GodoyInstituto Nacional de BiodiversidadUniversidad de Costa RicaCarmen RiveraCentro de Investigación en Biología Celular y MolecularUniversidad de Costa Rica192 Volume 19, No.3, September, 2005, INSECTA MUNDIAB(Hom. Psylloidea psyllidae). Bulletin de la so-ciété entomologique de France 94: 65-66.CABI and EPPO. Citrus greening bacterium.http://www.eppo.org/QUARANTINE/bacteria/Liberobacter_africanum/LIBESP_ds.pdf (con-sulted Sept. 2004)Capoor S.P., D. G.Rao, and S.M. Viswanath.1974. Greening disease of citrus in the DeccanTrap Country and its relationship with thevector, Diaphorina citri Kuwayama. pp. 43-49.In Weathers LG, Cohen M (ed.) Proceedings ofthe 6th Conference of the International CitrusVirology, University of California, Division ofAgricultural Sciences.Catling, H.D. 1970. Distribution of the psyllidvectors of citrus greening disease, with notes onthe biology and bionomics of Diaphorina citri.FAO Plant Protection Bulletin 18: 8-15.Cermeli, M., P. Morales, and F. Godoy. 2000.Presencia del psílido de los cítricos Diaphorinacitri Kuwayama (Hemiptera: Psyllidae) en Ven-ezuela. Bol. Entomol. Venez. 15(2):235-243.Frank, W. M. 1998. Florida Department of Agri-culture and Consumer Services, Division ofPlant Industry. Originally published as FDACS/DPI Entomology Circular No. 180. http://creatures.ifas.ufl.edu/citrus/acpsyllid.htmHalbert,  S.E. (19 June 1999). Asian citrus psyllid- A serious exotic pest of Florida citrus. http://www.doacs.state.fl.us/pi/enpp/ento/dcitri.htm(14 October 2002).Hoy, M.A., R. Nguyen. (June 1998). Citrus psylla:here in Florida - an action plan. Pest Alert.http://extlab7.entnem.ufl.edu/PestAlert/hoy-0615.htm (June 1998).Figure 1. Adult female (A) and nymphal instars (B) of Asiatic citruspsyllid on Citrus limetioides.AB

First report of Diaphorina citri (Hemiptera: Psyllidae) in Costa Rica

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