Fly baby girl

The fly baby girl , or cicadelle baby girl ( Homalodisca vitripennis ) is a Insecte Hémiptère of the family of the Cicadellidae.

This insect does not have anything a Mouche: it belongs to the group of cicadelles the close relations of the cicadas and the plant louses. It is a cicadelle gross which measures between 15 and 20 Misters His nickname of fly baby girl comes from an astonishing characteristic. Like all the cicadelles ones, it is a sucker insect of sap. It is installed on the young branches and the sheets and as it pumps sap, an incredible quantity of urine excretes, between hundred and thousand times its own weight each day. This characteristic is explained by the very low content of protein of the sap. In the zones where it is common, this “fly baby girl” is responsible for a fine slightly sirupeuse rain in the shade of the trees.

This species, originating in the south of the the United States, was propagated in California (1988), in French Polynésie (1999), with Hawaii 2004 and the Easter Island 2005, where she is regarded as a invasive Espèce. On the other hand it does not pose particular problems in its zone of origin. As much of insects sucker stitchers of sap, it is likely to transmit diseases to the plants. It is in particular the case of a bacterium called Xylella fastidiosa , person in charge of the Maladie of Pierce which causes serious damage in the Californian vineyard. One also finds some in the Alps Maritimes following the accidental release of these flies by a laboratory with Sophia Antipolis.

A method of fight biological was developed to fight in California against the spring pullulations of flies baby girls by using a species of hyménoptère, a small wasp parasitizes Gonatocerus triguttatus which will lay its eggs in the larvae of cicadelle.

In French Polynesia, the Parasitoïde Gonatocerus ashmeadi (Hymenoptera: Mymaridae) at summer introduces in May 2005 to control the populations of flies baby girls. It was established successfully and reduced 95% of the abundance of the plague without collateral impact on local fauna.

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