Pacific Pests, Pathogens and Weeds - Online edition

Pacific Pests, Pathogens & Weeds

Sweetpotato flea hopper (026)


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Summary

  • Narrow distribution. On brassicas, cucurbits, beans, peanuts, sweetpotato. An important pest.
  • Eggs laid in leaves; nymphs green, shiny black as adults, 2 mm long, with large hind legs, long antennae, piercing mouth parts. Impact unknown.
  • Sucking causes white spots, sometimes whole leaf turns greyish-white. Black faecal spots on leaves.
  • Cultural control: plant healthy vines; plant new crops far from old; weed; Chinese cabbage, radish, mustard as trap crops; collect and burn trash after harvest.
  • Chemical control: PDPs - derris, pyrethrum or chilli; or synthetic pyrethroids.

Common Name

Sweetpotato flea hopper, flea hopper, garden flea hopper, black garden flea hopper.

Scientific Name

Halticus species (Halticus tibialis, Halticus minutus)


AUTHORS Helen Tsatsia & Grahame Jackson
Information from Capinera JL (1999) Garden fleahopper Halticus bractatus. University of Florida. (http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/veg/leaf/fleahopper.htm).

Produced with support from the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research under project PC/2010/090: Strengthening integrated crop management research in the Pacific Islands in support of sustainable intensification of high-value crop production, implemented by the University of Queensland and the Secretariat of the Pacific Community.

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