Foreign Insects In N.Z.

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30634, 28 December 1964, Page 8

Foreign Insects In N.Z.

Eleven species of insect of the sub-order homoptera (which includes aphides, bugs, cicadas, scale insects, plant lice, and other sucking insects) are recorded for the first time in New Zealand by Mr L. J. Dumbleton, of the Entomology Division, Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, in the “New Zealand Journal of Science.” All the insects were found on introduced deciduous plants, and were likely to have been brought in on imported plant material, says Mr Dumbleton. One of the species, Ribautiana tenerrima, a leaf-hop-per, is a European species recorded as a pest of raspberry and loganberry in Canada, and is already fairly common on raspberries in New Zealand. The specimens recorded by Mr Dumbleton are nearly all from the Christchurch area, and are from raspberry, blackberry, boysenberry, loganberry, and oak; but there is a record of the

hopper on boysenberry at Hastings. Another leaf-hopper, Zygina dumbletoni, was named by Mr Dumbleton after investigations had failed to identify it is any known overseas insect. It has been recorded on strawberry in Hawke’s Bay, and raspberry and blackberry in North Canterbury. Its physiology and habits lead Mr Dumbleton to believe it is an introduced species. Three other introduced leaf-hoppers are newly-record-ed by Mr Dumbleton. They are Empoasca betulicola, on silver birch in North and Mid Canterbury; E. smaragdula, on alder in Christchurch; and Edwardsiana lethierri, on lime, horse chestnut, and hawthorne in the Christchurch area.

A white fly, Pealius azaleae, is recorded from azaleas in Christchurch, Nelson and the Fox Glacier region. A new (for New Zealand) member of the Phylloxeridae, a family of sucking insects closely related to the aphides, is recorded on oak at Nelson. The species is Phylloxera coccinea, a close relative of P. vitifoliae, a serious pest of grapes.

Mr Dumbleton records two aphides new to New Zealand —Euceraphis punctipennis, on silver birch at Christchurch, and Drepanosiphum plata-

noidis, on maple at Christchurch.

Two lerp-insects are included, both found on ash trees at Riccarton. Psyllopsis fraxini causes a reddish galling of the edges of young leaves, and P. fraxinicola is free-living.