Have you ever heard of jumping plant lice? No? Me neither, until very recently. But when a tiny insect that I initially thought was a barkfly leapt rather dramatically from its leaf into the vegetation a metre or so below rather than have its photograph taken, I thought ‘well, that’s odd’.

The family name for the jumping plant lice is Psyllidae and at least 77 species have been found living in Britain. Fortunately for me, the two Psyllids shown here stayed completely still, allowing me to get close enough for reasonable photos; they’re only 3-4mm long so getting very close is the only way for me to photograph them.

I haven’t yet had their identity confirmed but these have the characteristics of Cacopsylla (formerly Psylla) ambigua that I found listed on the British Bugs website, and they were found on Willow trees, which also fits; they are generally plant-specific, which certainly helps with their identification.