''Psylla buxi'', known generally as the boxwood psyllid or box sucker, is a species of plant-parasitic hemipteran in the family

Psyllidae Psyllidae, the jumping plant lice or psyllids, are a family of small plant-feeding insects that tend to be very host-specific, i.e. each plant-louse species only feeds on one plant species (monophagous) or feeds on a few closely related plants ( ...

. It is

native Native may refer to: People * Jus soli, citizenship by right of birth * Indigenous peoples, peoples with a set of specific rights based on their historical ties to a particular territory ** Native Americans (disambiguation) In arts and entert ...

to Europe and introduced to North America. The psyllid causes cabbage-like leaf clusters, known as

gall Galls (from the Latin , 'oak-apple') or ''cecidia'' (from the Greek , anything gushing out) are a kind of swelling growth on the external tissues of plants, fungi, or animals. Plant galls are abnormal outgrowths of plant tissues, similar to be ...

s at the tips of box shoots. The leaves are slightly thicker and strongly concave, and in the summer conceal many pale green

nymphs 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 typ ...

, which are coated with white wax. Psylla buxi

Buxus sempervirens Myrtifolia 2018-11-07 4264

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Plant parasites of Europe
Psyllidae Galls Hemiptera of Europe Hemiptera of North America Insects described in 1758 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus {{sternorrhyncha-stub

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