This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Diaphorina citri Kuwayama (Hemiptera: Liviidae) can cause severe damage to citrus plants, as it transmits Candidatus Liberibacter spp., a causative agent of Huanglongbing disease. Symbiotic bacteria play vital roles in the ecology and biology of herbivore hosts, thereby affecting host growth and adaptation. In our research, the effects of Rutaceous plants (i.e., Citrus reticulata cv. Shatangju, Citrus poonensis cv. Ponkan, Murraya paniculata (orange jasmine), Citrus limon (lemon), and Citrus sinensis (navel orange)) on the gut microbiota (GM) and microbial diversity of D. citri adults were investigated by 16S rRNA high-throughput sequencing. It was found that Proteobacteria dominated the GM communities. The gut microbe diversity was the highest in the ponkan-feeding population, and the lowest in the Shatangju-feeding population. The NMDS analysis revealed that there were obvious differences in the GM communities among the different hosts. PICRUSt function prediction indicated significant differences in host function, and those pathways were crucial for maintaining population reproduction, growth, development, and adaptation to environmental stress in D. citri. Our study sheds new light on the interactions between symbionts, herbivores, and host plants and expands our knowledge on host adaptation related to GM in D. citri.

The effects of five host plant species – tangerine, Citrus reticulata Blanco cv. Shatangju, C. reticulata cv. Ponkan, orange jasmine, Murraya paniculata (L.) Jack, lemon, Citrus limon (L.) Osbeck, and navel orange, Citrus sinensis (L.) Osbeck (all Rutaceae) – on the life‐table parameters and host preference of the citrus psyllid, Diaphorina citri Kuwayama (Hemiptera: Liviidae), were evaluated under laboratory conditions. In the presence of the host plants tested, citrus psyllid showed higher preference for navel orange, followed by Shatangju and orange jasmine. Total nymph duration of D. citri was longest on lemon (14.1 days) and shortest on Shatangju (12.7 days). The survival rate (lx) of citrus psyllid on orange jasmine was significantly higher than on other tested host plants. The highest longevity of females was observed on lemon (47.6 days), whereas the shortest was on navel orange (40.5 days). The total number of eggs laid by females was not significantly different among host species. The net reproductive rate (R0) was significantly affected by host plants, being highest on Shatangju (162.1 females/female per generation) and lowest on navel orange (130.7). The intrinsic rates of natural increase (rm) was not significantly different among hosts, and ranged from 0.112 on lemon to 0.123 on orange jasmine. Cluster analysis of the life‐table parameters of D. citri on five host plant species indicated that Shatangju was the most suitable host to D. citri, followed by orange jasmine, and navel orange was the least suitable.

No abstract