''Haplaxius crudus'' is a planthopper species in the genus ''

Haplaxius ''Haplaxius'' is a genus of cixiid planthoppers in the family Cixiidae. There are at least 60 described species in ''Haplaxius''. Haplaxius crudus is the vector of the coconut lethal yellowing plant disease. Species These 62 species belong to ...

''. ''H. crudus'' is the vector of the coconut

lethal yellowing Lethal yellowing (LY) is a phytoplasma disease that attacks many species of palms, including some commercially important species such as the coconut and date palm. In the Caribbean it is spread by the planthopper ''Haplaxius crudus'' (former nam ...

/16SrIV-A.Brown, S.E., Been, B.O. & McLaughlin, W.A. (2006). Detection and variability of the lethal yellowing group (16Sr IV) phytoplasmas in the ''Cedusa'' sp. (Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha: Derbidae) in Jamaica. ''Annals of Applied Biology'', 149(1), pp. 53–62

Range

Throughout the

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...

and in

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

Hosts

The

nymph A nymph ( grc, νύμφη, nýmphē, el, script=Latn, nímfi, label=Modern Greek; , ) in ancient Greek folklore is a minor female nature deity. Different from Greek goddesses, nymphs are generally regarded as personifications of nature, are ty ...

s are found on over 40 species of

Poaceae Poaceae () or Gramineae () is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns an ...

and

Cyperaceae The Cyperaceae are a family of graminoid (grass-like), monocotyledonous flowering plants known as sedges. The family is large, with some 5,500 known species described in about 90 genera, the largest being the "true sedges" genus ''Carex'' w ...

in the

Neotropical The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropical terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperate zone. Definition In bioge ...

. In urban

habitats they prefer

St. Augustine grass St. Augustine grass (''Stenotaphrum secundatum''), also known as buffalo turf in Australia and buffalo grass in South Africa, is a species of grass in the family Poaceae. It is a warm-season lawn grass that is popular for cultivation in tropical ...

. Adults feed exclusively on the foliage of 30 species of

Arecaceae The Arecaceae is a family of perennial flowering plants in the monocot order Arecales. Their growth form can be climbers, shrubs, tree-like and stemless plants, all commonly known as palms. Those having a tree-like form are called palm trees ...

. Adults seem to prefer ''

Cocos nucifera The coconut tree (''Cocos nucifera'') is a member of the palm tree family (Arecaceae) and the only living species of the genus ''Cocos''. The term "coconut" (or the archaic "cocoanut") can refer to the whole coconut palm, the seed, or the f ...

'' but that may be due to observations being made around plantations, where surrounding grass provides a good combination of habitats for both nymphs and adults. Have been known since at least 1978 as the most common insect on ''C. nucifera'' in Florida and

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

As a vector

Vector Vector most often refers to: *Euclidean vector, a quantity with a magnitude and a direction *Vector (epidemiology), an agent that carries and transmits an infectious pathogen into another living organism Vector may also refer to: Mathematic ...

of lethal yellowing/16SrIV-A

phytoplasma Phytoplasmas are obligate intracellular parasites of plant phloem tissue and of the insect vectors that are involved in their plant-to-plant transmission. Phytoplasmas were discovered in 1967 by Japanese scientists who termed them mycoplasma-lik ...

Economic impact

Has transmitted the LY responsible for the deaths of millions of ornamental and farmed palms throughout the Caribbean. Note that in the absence of a phytoplasma to vector, does not damage host palms.

Management

Replacement of nymph host populations in nurseries with anything non-

monocot Monocotyledons (), commonly referred to as monocots, (Lilianae ''sensu'' Chase & Reveal) are grass and grass-like flowering plants (angiosperms), the seeds of which typically contain only one embryonic leaf, or cotyledon. They constitute one of ...

diazinon Diazinon (IUPAC name: ''O'',''O''-Diethyl ''O''- -methyl-6-(propan-2-yl)pyrimidin-2-ylphosphorothioate, INN - Dimpylate), a colorless to dark brown liquid, is a thiophosphoric acid ester developed in 1952 by Ciba-Geigy, a Swiss chemical company ( ...

application on nymph hosts, and systemic

dimethoate Dimethoate is a widely used organophosphate insecticide and acaricide. It was patented and introduced in the 1950s by American Cyanamid. Like other organophosphates, dimethoate is an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor which disables cholinesterase, an ...

injection of the adult hosts.

References

External links

Insects described in 1907 Insect vectors of plant pathogens Taxa named by Edward Payson Van Duzee Oecleini {{Fulgoromorpha-stub