Order Homoptera:  Family Psyllidae

The Leucaena psyllid, Heteropsylla cubana, is a member of a group of insects known as "jumping plant lice," and is native to Central and South America where it occurs on leucaenas in their native range.  The adult psyllid is difficult to see with the naked eye and is about 2 mm long and yellow in colour.   Eggs are laid between new leaves on young shoot tips.  It takes 10-20 days to go from egg to adult stage.  The insect is common on the young growth leucaena trees where the eggs, wingless nymphs and winged adults often occur together.  In Africa, the pest has been recorded in leucaena growing areas on Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Reunion, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.

Leucaena is a multi-purpose plant species with a variety of uses.  The solution to this pest problem will not be immediate.  However, farmers should avoid cutting their leucaena trees.  Insects that feed on the psyllid are being evaluated and resistant varieties of leucaena are being tested.

Because of the difficulty of detecting this insect with the naked eye, its presence may not be noticed until damage is evident.  Adults and nymphs inflict injury to leucaena plants by de-sapping young shoots, leaves and flowering structures.  This can cause wilting of foliage, especially the new shoots and, complete defoliation of susceptible leucaena varieties.  In severe cases, plants die.