This species induces leaf edge rolls on Cercocarpus breviflorus. The lower leaf is usually tightly rolled onto the upper surface, with a hollow interior where the psyllid nymph feeds. The deformation is usually red and green. The galls are variable, and sometimes can take a form more similar to leaf blisters on veins. An adult was reared from a gall in New Mexico in May 2023 and confirmed to be P. insignita.

Cercocarpus betuloides is also added as a host based upon a series of observations by Alice Abela in which she photographed a Purshivora insignita female on a C. betuloides gall in San Diego County, California, and a P. insignita male on C. betuloides in Ventura County, California, and extracted nymphs consistent with P. insignita nymphs from a gall in San Diego County, Calif.

Similar galls on other host plants (e.g., Cercocarpus montanus) may be induced by different Purshivora species.