Aphids are small sap-sucking insects and members of the superfamily Aphidoidea. Common names include greenfly and blackfly, although individuals within a species can vary widely in color. The group includes the fluffy white woolly aphids. A typical life cycle involves flightless females giving live birth to female nymphs—who may also be already pregnant, an adaptation scientists call telescoping generations—without the involvement of males. Maturing rapidly, females breed profusely so that the number of these insects multiplies quickly. Winged females may develop later in the season, allowing the insects to colonize new plants. In temperate regions, a phase of sexual reproduction occurs in the autumn, with the insects often overwintering as eggs.
In evolutionary ecology, a parasitoid is an organism that lives in close association with its host at the host's expense, eventually resulting in the death of the host. Parasitoidism is one of six major evolutionary strategies within parasitism, distinguished by the fatal prognosis for the host, which makes the strategy close to predation.
The genus Lygus includes over 40 species of plant-feeding insects in the family Miridae. The term lygus bug is used for any member of genus Lygus.
The Braconidae are a family of parasitoid wasps. After the closely related Ichneumonidae, braconids make up the second-largest family in the order Hymenoptera, with about 17,000 recognized species and many thousands more undescribed. One analysis estimated a total between 30,000 and 50,000, and another provided a narrower estimate between 42,000 and 43,000 species.
The Russian wheat aphid is an aphid that can cause significant losses in cereal crops. The species was introduced to the United States in 1986 and is considered an invasive species there. This aphid is pale green and up to 2 mm long. Cornicles are very short, rounded, and appear to be lacking. There is an appendage above the cauda giving the aphid the appearance of having two tails. The saliva of this aphid is toxic to the plant and causes whitish striping on cereal leaves. Feeding by this aphid will also cause the flag leaf to turn white and curl around the head causing incomplete head emergence. Its host plants are cereal grain crops including wheat and barley and to a lesser extent, wild grasses such as wheatgrasses, brome-grasses, ryegrasses and anything in the grass family.
Parasitoid wasps are a large group of hymenopteran superfamilies, with all but the wood wasps (Orussoidea) being in the wasp-waisted Apocrita. As parasitoids, they lay their eggs on or in the bodies of other arthropods, sooner or later causing the death of these hosts. Different species specialise in hosts from different insect orders, most often Lepidoptera, though some select beetles, flies, or bugs; the spider wasps (Pompilidae) exclusively attack spiders.
Signiphoridae is a small family of parasitic wasps in the superfamily Chalcidoidea. The roughly 80 species are placed in four genera.
Aonidiella aurantii or red scale is an armored scale insect and a major pest of citrus. It is thought to be a native of South China but has been widely dispersed by the agency of man through the movement of infected plant material. In the United States it is known as California red scale. It was first found in California between 1868 and 1875, apparently brought there on planting material imported from Australia.
The soybean aphid is an insect pest of soybean that is exotic to North America. The soybean aphid is native to Asia. It has been described as a common pest of soybeans in China and as an occasional pest of soybeans in Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand. The soybean aphid was first documented in North America in Wisconsin in July 2000. Ragsdale et al. (2004) noted that the soybean aphid probably arrived in North America earlier than 2000, but remained undetected for a period of time. Venette and Ragsdale (2004) suggested that Japan probably served as the point of origin for the soybean aphid's North American invasion. By 2003, the soybean aphid had been documented in Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. Together, these states accounted for 89% of the 63,600,000 acres (257,000 km2) of soybean planted in the United States in 2007.
Aphelinus certus is a parasitoid wasp native to Asia. It parasitizes the soybean aphid and other aphids.
Aphelinus mali is a parasitoid wasp that exploits the woolly apple aphid, a pest of apple trees. It is native to the northeastern United States but has been introduced to other parts of the world as a biological pest control agent.
Aphis gossypii is a tiny insect, an aphid ("greenfly") in the superfamily Aphidoidea in the order Hemiptera. It is a true bug and sucks sap from plants. It is a widely distributed pest of a variety of agricultural crops in the families Cucurbitaceae, Rutaceae and Malvaceae. Common names include cotton aphid, melon aphid and melon and cotton aphid.
Aphelinus asychis is a parasitoid wasp native to Eurasia that was introduced to North America to control the Russian wheat aphid. It has six different aphid hosts, including Acyrthosiphon pisum.
Aphelinus abdominalis is a parasitoid wasp and biocontrol agent used to control several aphid species that are pests of agricultural crops, including the potato aphid Macrosiphum euphorbiae.
Cinara pilicornis, the spruce shoot aphid or brown spruce shoot aphid, is an aphid species in the genus Cinara found on Norway spruce and Sitka spruce. It is a quite large aphid species with a plump, dull brown body. It seems to have little effect on the tree. It is a European species but it has also been reported in spruce forests in New Zealand, together with the spruce aphid.
Pauesia is a genus of parasitoid wasps in the subfamily Aphidiinae. The species in the genus use the conifer aphids as their host.
Eriosoma lanigerum, the woolly apple aphid, woolly aphid or American blight, is an aphid in the superfamily Aphidoidea in the order Hemiptera. It is a true bug and sucks sap from plants.
Edward M. Barrows is a biologist who earned his BS in Botany and Zoology at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in 1968, and his PhD in entomology, mentored by Charles Duncan Michener, at the University of Kansas, Lawrence in 1975. Further, he is a retired U.S. Army officer. He has had a lifetime interest in nature, science, and art. He performed research on bee nesting, predation, and reproductive behavior, for example, finding that female Lasioglossum zephyrus sweat bees have individual odors perceived by conspecific males. This was evidently the first discovery of invertebrate individual odors, as opposed to group or nest odors. He later found that males of the Xylocopa virginica virginica have highly complex mate searching and mate-acquisition behaviors, perhaps more complicated that any other bee species and many other animal species. Students and he studied feeding behavior and recovery from injuries in Mimus polyglottos. With students and established scientists, he studied or is studying arthropod community structure in a rare, freshwater, tidal, marsh, and associated habitats, evolution of floral display in Asclepias syriaca, parasitization and reproductive behavior of chalcidoid wasps, floral associates of rare plants, and other topics. His research in scientific communication led to the book Animal Desk Reference, A Dictionary of Animal Behavior, Ecology, and Evolution. His current research laboratory, the Laboratory of Entomology and Biodiversity, is in the Heyden Observatory of Georgetown University.
Diuraphis is a genus of true bugs belonging to the family Aphididae.
Eunotus is a genus of chalcid wasps. Most species are parasitoids of scale insects.
