White Lace Lerp

Cardiaspina albitextura

Cardiaspina albitextura (White Lace Lerp) are lerp forming Psyllids found in south-eastern mainland Australia.
White Lace Lerp (Cardiaspina albitextura) Some psyllids build tiny houses from a sugary substance and cover with golden fairyfloss. (A bit like the witches house in Hansel and Gretel) The dome had a fine diagonal woven texture and the largest ones were about 6mm across. The creature itself was nymphal, shades of yellow with a soft, ribbed body, a couple of spots on either side, and a yellow mouth tube. I lifted one side of this lerp trying not to damage it and, being a sugary, mix I was able to moisten the raised edge and 'glue' it back to the leaf. I think it worked well. I haven't seen these golden coloured ones before and wonder about the fact that the creature is a similar colour. I also considered the fact that often we find just the domes with no floss on top and maybe the floss is highly vulnerable to dissolving in a light rain or even overnight dew. Based on this idea I suspect these might be very fresh ones. On older leaves of a eucalyptus in a local nature reserve. The name 'lerp' comes from the aboriginal word 'larp' Dense colonies create thick encrustations and were often collected for food. 'Cardiaspina albitextura Taylor, 1962' commonly known as the 'White Lace lerp" Like miniature cicadas these creatures create unique micro-sounds... http://www.psyllids.org/CardiaspinaSOUND.htm Australia,Cardiaspina albitextura,Geotagged,Summer,White Lace Lerp

Appearance

Adults are most similar to tiny cicadas (about 8mm long) but they are most often found by the presence of the 'lerps'.
The lerps are waxy sugar, shell shaped, net-like structures stuck to eucalyptus leaves sometimes in vast numbers.
The nymphs may live inside these for many months as they develop.

Distribution

Australian south-east including SA, Vic, NSW, ACT,

Evolution

Lerp psyllids produce unique calls http://www.psyllids.org/CardiaspinaSOUND.htm

Uses

Historically provided food for indigenous peoples.

References:

Some text fragments are auto parsed from Wikipedia.

http://www.psyllids.org/index.htm
http://bie.ala.org.au/species/Cardiaspina+albitextura#
Taxonomy
KingdomAnimalia
DivisionArthropoda
ClassInsecta
OrderHemiptera
FamilyPsyllidae
GenusCardiaspina
SpeciesCardiaspina albitextura
Photographed in
Australia