Leica application suite software v4

For this study we used adult specimens belonging to 16 insect species (Table 1). Of these, 15 species were obtained from insect colonies reared at the AgriBio laboratory of Agriculture Victoria, while another species (Acizzia sp.) was field-collected (Table 1). Insect specimens from the colonies were preserved in absolute ethanol and deposited into the Victorian Agricultural Insect Collection (VAIC). Measurements to obtain the volume size were taken from 10 individuals for each species and the result was averaged in Table 2. Measurements were taken using the Leica Application Suite software v4.5.0, from five to 20 images were stacked to generate each photo using a Leica stereo microscope M205C with a DFC450 camera. For each insect, images were taken from dorsal, lateral, and frontal view in order to obtain a measurement of the volume (length * width * depth) of head, thorax and abdomen. Hardness of the exoskeleton was estimated by attempting to compress and pierce it using forceps, and the 16 species were assigned to three discrete categories (soft, intermediate, hard) (Table 2). Specimens from all taxa were then grouped into eight insect pools, with six pools containing 100 individual insects and the same 15 species, while another two pools also contained a single specimen of the Bradysia nr. ocellaris, for a total of 16 species, and 101 individuals (Table 1).

Morphological examination of psyllid (Hemiptera: Psylloidea) specimens was conducted post non-destructive DNA extraction to confirm the presence of a Casuarinicola species, which was reported by the metabarcoding analysis within some samples (see below). Morphological identification was based on the taxonomical keys provided by Taylor et al. (2010) (link). Images of adult psyllids and of the exuviae of an immature were obtained stacking together from five to 30 images obtained using a Leica stereo microscope M205C with a DFC450 camera using the Leica Application Suite software v4.5.0. These images were used to generate Fig. 8.