As winter sets in there are less and less flying insects to be seen, which might seem like a bad time to be an entomologist. But even in the middle of June there are still plenty of insects around – you just need to know where to look. Personally when I get a bit desperate for hexapodal company I head for the nearest gum tree.
Gum trees (Eucalytpus spp., Corymbia spp and Angophora spp.) are hosts to myriad insects but today I want to talk about the insects which form “lerps” on gum tree leaves. A lerp is the white sugary, waxy covering which the immature stages of some psyllid insects (family Psyllidae) produce from liquid excretions known as honeydew. There is disagreement among scientists as to the purpose of the lerp. Some argue that the lerp is protection from predators, while others insist that it provides the immature psyllid with a more humid environment. Perhaps it is a mixture of both. The image below shows an intact lerp in the upper image and then moved to reveal the Glycaspis sp. nymph underneath.
