Australian arid land Bush Blitz surveys reveal new species of <i>Acizzia</i> Heslop‐Harrison, 1961 (Hemiptera: Psyllidae) associated with hop bush ( <i>Dodonaea</i> spp.) (Sapindaceae)

Abstract Although there are over 400 described species of jumping plant lice and lerp insects (Psylloidea) from Australia, there remain many undescribed species, and those that feed on certain host plants are generally poorly known. Here, we examine the free‐living Acizzia Heslop‐Harrison, 1961 associated with hop bush, Dodonaea spp. (Sapindaceae), with the national Bush Blitz programme being the key source of specimens from arid and semi‐arid locations across Southern Australia. A CO1 molecular phylogeny, a 5% divergence threshold, an Automatic Barcode Gap Discovery (ABGD) analysis and morphological assessment were used to delineate species' boundaries. This resulted in a well‐supported consensus for the existence of nine species. Of these, one species is redescribed, A. dodonaeae (Tuthill, 1952), and eight are recognised as new: A. brevis Taylor &amp; McClelland sp. nov. , A. hexandrae Taylor &amp; McClelland sp. nov. , A. incerta Taylor &amp; McClelland sp. nov. , A. lobulatae Taylor &amp; McClelland sp. nov. , A. stenozygae Taylor &amp; McClelland sp. nov. , A. tenuis Taylor &amp; McClelland sp. nov. , A. uncino Taylor &amp; McClelland sp. nov. and A. viscosae Taylor &amp; McClelland sp. nov. These results are discussed in regard to future research on Acizzia systematics, its host–plant relationships and levels of host specificity.