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Introduction
Themorphologicalstudiesregardinginsects
fromthePsylloideasuperfamilyconductedupto
nowfocusedmostlyonthemorphologyofthe
head,forewings,legsandgenitalia.Incompari-
sontotheirtotalbodydimensions,thethorax
ofpsyllidsisrelativelylarge,yetnotmuchin-
formationconcerningitsmorphologyisgivenin
professionalliterature.Itmaythusbeconsidered
theleaststudiedbodypartoftheseinsects.Most
informationpertainstocharactersofdiagnostic
significance,andlittlecharactersofthatkind
havebeenfoundinthemorphologyofthetho-
raxsofar.Itshouldnotalsobeneglectedthat
thethoraxisatrulycomplextagmaofthebody,
whichisdifficulttomount.Nostudiesofthorax
inrepresentativesofallhighertaxonomicunits
havebeenconducteduptonow(families,sub-
familiesortribesofpsyllids).Neitherhasanyset
ofcharactersofthethoraxwhichcouldserveas
adeterminantofaffiliationofagivenspeciesto
theseunitsbeendistinguished.Whatismore,the
morphologicalcharactersofthethoraxhavenot
beenusedinphylogeneticdiscussionsregard-
ingthePsylloidea.Ithasthusbeendecidedto
conductamorphologicalanalysisofthethorax
inallfamilies,subfamiliesandtribesaswellas
todeterminethefeasibilityofthedistinguished
charactersforthedeterminationofphylogenetic
relationswithinthePsylloideasuperfamily.
Reviewofpreviousstudiesofthorax
morphologyofpsyllids
Audouin(1824)wastheauthorofthefirst
workregardingthoraxmorphologyininsects.
Inhiswork,Audouinproposedanomenclature
forindividualscleritesofthethoraxofallorders
ofinsects,aswellasdevelopedatopological
definitionforeachofthescleritesconstituting
thethorax.Manyofthecontemporarilyused
termsrelatingtomorphologicalstructuresand
thethorax,suchasepisternumortrochantin,are
derivedfromthatparticularwork.
Thefirstinformationregardingthestructure
ofthethoraxofpsyllidshavebeenprovidedby
Witlaczil(1885),whostudiedthestructures
ofthethoraxinPsyllopsisfraxinicola(Foerster,
1848).Thatwork,however,concernedmostlythe
anatomyofpsyllids,sotheinformationregard-
ingthethoraxwasscarceandmostlyrelatedto
thesegmentationofthethoraxintoprothorax,
mesothoraxandmetathorax.
Inhisworks,Snodgrass(1908,1909)haspro-
videddescriptionsofnumerousstructuresand
hasintroducednamesforindividualstructuresof
thethoraxininsects,whicharecommonlyused
untilpresent,alsointhePsylloideagroup.He
hascharacterizedandpresentedthedrawingsof
theparapteron(Lat.parapterum),theperitreme
(Lat.peritrema),thepleuralsulcus(Lat.sutura
pleuralis),thepleuralwingprocess(Lat.proces-
susanterioralae)andthepreepisternum(Lat.
proepisternum).
