ARTHROPOD BIOLOGY Abdominal Color of the Asian Citrus Psyllid (Hemiptera: Liviidae) Is Associated With Flight Capabilities

Weexamined the propensity for ßight initiation and ßight capability of the Asian citrus psyllid (Diaphorina citriKuwayama, Hemiptera: Liviidae)with a ßightmill.Wemeasured continuous ßightbyD. citri forup to3h,whichequated toadistanceof 2.4km.Wecompared theßight capability ofD. citridependingon their sex andmorphotype(colorof abdomen).Twogeneralmorphotypes exist within this species: greenÐblue and grayÐbrown. We observed that 32% of psyllids from the greenÐblue morphotype tested exhibited long durations of ßight ( 60 s); whereas 5% of psyllids from the grayÐbrown morphotype performed such long duration ßights. There was no signiÞcant difference in ßight performance between the two sexes within both the grayÐbrown and greenÐblue morphotypes. Furthermore, psyllids from the grayÐbrownmorphotypewere characterized by smaller pronotums and shorter wings than psyllids from the greenÐblue morphotype. In addition, males, in general, were characterized by smaller pronotums and shorter wings than females. However, neither pronotum nor wing size were associated with ßight capability ofD. citri. Our results may help explain dispersal behavior of D. citri with respect to practical management on an area-wide scale.