Bactericera cockerelli, Sulc, 1909, Sulc, 1909

Percy, Diana M., Rung, Alessandra & Hoddle, Mark S., 2012, An annotated checklist of the psyllids of California (Hemiptera: Psylloidea), Zootaxa 3193, pp. 1-27 : 8

cockerelli (Šulc, 1909)

Type locality: USA, Colorado.

Additional distribution: USA, Arizona, California, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Nevada, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Wyoming; Canada, Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan; Mexico. Introduced in New Zealand.

Host plant: Various species of Solanaceae including Capsicum , Lycium , and Solanum species.

Remarks: A pest of potatoes, tomatoes, capsicum, and aubergine ( Solanaceae ) ( Liu & Trumble 2004, 2007); sporadic but potentially devastating outbreaks are known in greenhouses and potato growing areas of Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas and since 2006, New Zealand ( Teulon et al. 2009). Heavy nymph infestations cause symptoms knows as potato yellows, and this species is known to vector a Candidatus Liberibacter bacterium ( Hansen et al. 2008). Recorded in California in the 1950s ( Jensen 1954).

Parasitoids: Metaphycus psyllidis Compere in California, and Tamarixia triozae (Burks) in Arizona.