Citrus flatid planthopper - Metcalfa pruinosa (Hemiptera: Flatidae), a new pest of ornamental horticulture in the Czech Republic

Abstract

In late August of 2001 a population of Metcalfa pruinosa (Say, 1830) consisting of several dozens of adults and larvae was observed in a nursery of ornamentals at Brno-Bystrc. The species occurred mostly on young twigs of cultivars of Thuja occidentalis L., Juniperus communis L. and Sorbus aucuparia L. but also Lilium spp. and singly on other various wood and herbal ornamental plants. The damage was rather of an aesthetic kind: young twigs were covered by 5–10 cm long spots of waxy fluff produced by the larvae. The pest is native to North America and was introduced in the late 1970’s to Italy, from where it spread to southern France, Slovenia and southern Austria. The Brno population might have been imported, in the egg stage, on ornamental shrubs from Italy. The polyphagous pest is very common in Southern Europe, causing damage especially on fruit trees by the secretion of honeydew that, being colonised by Capnodiaceae moulds, inhibits the transpiration. The species could stay permanently in the Czech Republic or could be repeatedly imported again.