The Australian fig psylloid, Mycopsylla fici, is a sap-feeding insect herbivore that is host-specific to the Moreton Bay fig, Ficus macrophylla. It has periodic major outbreaks that can cause complete defoliation of individual trees and massive decrease in local leaf and fruit availability, with significant effects for many insect and vertebrate species that utilise the tree’s resources. We used ⅛ of an Illumina MiSeq run to sequence genomic DNA from two pools of five psylloids from two different field sites. We identified 14 polymorphic microsatellite loci and characterised them in 43 individuals from two populations (Sydney and Lord Howe Island, Australia). Within populations, the number of alleles ranged from 4 to 15 per locus with observed heterozygosity of 0–0.9. Four loci deviated from Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium. The microsatellite primers will be useful for the study of population genetics and gene flow within and between psylloid populations.
Intra‐ and interspecific density dependence mediates weather effects on the population dynamics of a plant–insect herbivore system
