Myotrioza clementsiana

Myotrioza clementsiana – click the above image for a larger photograph view.

Myotrioza clementsiana, new species of ‘psyllid’ (or lerp insects) named in honour of the late Alwin and Berna Clements, environmental conservationists who were instrumental in the establishment of Moorunde Wildlife Reserve (the type locality), and their family Dr Mark Clements, Centre for Australian National Biodiversity Research and Australian National Herbarium, Dr Peter Clements, University of Adelaide and President of the Natural History Society of SA, and Wendy Clements, who together continue their legacy.

The genus Myotrioza includes twenty new species from Eremophila and Myoporum from southern and central Australia. Five of these species occur on Moorunde, and for three of these Moorunde is the type locality. Three species were collected from the very same tree, a false sandalwood, Myoporum platycarpum, another from berrigan or emu-bush, Eremophila longifolia. The honour of the naming of the new species after the Clements family is well-deserved due to their past and ongoing commitment to environmental conservation.

The article appeared in the taxonomic journal Zootaxa: Taylor, G.S., E.P. Fagan-Jeffries and A.D. Austin (2016). A new genus and twenty new species of Australian jumping plant-lice (Psylloidea: Triozidae) from Eremophila and Myoporum (Scrophulariaceae: Myoporeae). Zootaxa, Monograph 4073, 1-84. http://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4073.1.1

Click this link to download a copy of the entire paper from Dropbox (25.5MB): Taylor, Fagan-Jeffries & Austin 2016 Zootaxa Myotrioza.pdf