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Psyllids produce saliva that gels to form a protective sheath around their stylets. This saliva can be visualized as stylet tracks, and we have used the presence of tracks to study the feeding behaviour of Diaphorina citri Kuwayama (Hemiptera: Liviidae). Both single and branched tracks were produced by nymphs and adults, and the tracks made by males and females did not differ. Tracks dissipated from calamondin leaves within a 7‐day post‐feeding period after adults fed for 2 days and numbers of tracks declined with increasing maturity of calamondin leaves. In the six host plants studied, most psyllids fed abaxially from midribs and most probes traversed or terminated in the tissue (midrib, lateral vein, minor vein, or mesophyll) above which the stylets entered the leaf or leaflet. The number of tracks and landings were recorded on the six hosts in choice tests. More tracks were found in leaves or leaflets of orange jasmine, wampee, and trifoliate orange than in sour orange, calamondin, and lemon. Orange jasmine is considered a preferred host of D. citri, and this is in agreement with the number of tracks found in this study, but not the number of landings. Trifoliate orange is considered a poor host of D. citri, which, in this study, is reflected in the low number of landings, but not in the numbers of tracks. Our results indicate that the presence of adult psyllids on a plant may not reflect its host status, and that the presence of stylet tracks should also be determined in host preference studies. When calamondin leaves were paired with leaves of guava, billygoat weed, or greenleaf desmodium, the presence of volatiles from these plants reduced feeding by adults on calamondin and suggests that understoreys of billygoat weed or desmodium in orchards may also reduce feeding. A negative, exponential relationship between numbers of tracks per leaf and the concentrations of an agricultural mineral oil applied to leaf surfaces was found. This reduction in feeding, in conjunction with reductions in oviposition, has practical implications for suppressing psyllid populations in orchards.

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Abs tract. The efficacy of pest control of three different oil formulations in multiple low-concentration spray programmes on sweet orange and pummelo were compared with unsprayed and normal farmer-treatments over three years. Phytotoxicity of sprays was assessed in terms of fruit and leaf drop, fruit yield and external fruit quality. Trees sprayed with any type of oil had lower pest numbers than unsprayed trees. On sweet orange, the heaviest oil was better than the normal farm practice at controlling chaff scale on fruit and red mite and whitefly on leaves. On pummelo it provided the best control of red mite on leaves. All three oils were as effective as the normal farm practice in control of rust mite on sweet orange fruit and leaves and red mite, rust mite and red scale on pummelo fruit. On sweet orange trees there was no evidence of phytotoxicity, and the external quality of fruit generally improved over time. On pummelo trees, oil sprays were unable to improve the external fruit quality. The number of pummelo per tree was reduced in three of the oil spray schedules in 1995 and one in 1996, but the total weight of fruit harvested per tree was unaffected.