The use of pesticides, while beneficial for global food security, wreaks havoc on natural ecosystems and human health. To address this issue, Penn State researchers have turned to an unlikely enforcer to protect crops: the ...
Ecology
Feb 23, 2024
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45
A small team of biologists and zoologists from Austria, the Netherlands, Germany and Finland has found evidence of silky ants consuming aphids to treat fungal infections. In their study, published in the journal Biology Letters, ...
Many gardeners will tell you that aphids are the bane of their existence. According to a new study from the University of Florida, these tiny pests also pose problems for the iconic monarch butterfly. The study found that ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 26, 2023
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313
The risk for pandemic diseases caused by arboviruses is rising as the dispersal rate of their arthropod vectors increases. During probing and feeding of arthropod vectors, vector-borne viruses are delivered into vertebrate/plant ...
Plants & Animals
Apr 3, 2023
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85
When fields of oilseed rape are exposed to diesel exhaust and/or ozone—both found in emissions from diesel burning vehicles and industry—the number of parasitic insects available to control aphids drops significantly, ...
Plants & Animals
Nov 8, 2022
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47
In a new study in PNAS, a research team at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena, Germany, shows that both catnip and pea aphids produce the substance nepetalactone, even though the plant and the insect evolved ...
Evolution
Oct 13, 2022
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202
Aphids are one of the least welcome garden visitors. These small insects can cause substantial damage in agriculture, but how do they actually choose their host plants? What are the basic mechanisms behind this? Researchers ...
Ecology
Sep 5, 2022
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27
A researcher reports evidence of a gall-forming aphid defending itself against predators, a first for the species, Mordwilkoja vagabunda. The insects inject saliva into leaf stalks, inducing the plant to form small growths ...
Plants & Animals
May 19, 2022
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22
We humans tend to avoid harsh conditions when we are sick, instead seeking out the comfort of our climate-controlled homes. New research shows that sick insects may also be sensitive to extreme temperatures, and it could ...
Plants & Animals
Nov 5, 2021
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44
For home gardeners and farmers, herbivorous insects present a major threat to their hard work and crop yields. The predator insects that feed on these bugs emit odors that pests can sense, which changes the pests' behavior ...
Agriculture
Aug 25, 2021
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859
Aphids, also known as plant lice and in Britain and the Commonwealth as greenflies, blackflies or whiteflies, (not to be confused with "jumping plant lice" or true whiteflies) are small sap sucking insects, and members of the superfamily Aphidoidea. Aphids are among the most destructive insect pests on cultivated plants in temperate regions. The damage they do to plants has made them enemies of farmers and gardeners the world over, but from a zoological standpoint they are a very successful group of organisms. Their success is in part due to the asexual reproduction capability of some species.
About 4,400 species of 10 families are known. Historically, many fewer families were recognised, as most species were included in the family Aphididae. Around 250 species are serious pests for agriculture and forestry as well as an annoyance for gardeners. They vary in length from 1 to 10 millimetres (0.04 to 0.39 in).
Natural enemies include predatory ladybirds, hoverfly larvae, parasitic wasps, aphid midge larvae, crab spiders, lacewings and entomopathogenic fungi like Lecanicillium lecanii and the Entomophthorales.
This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA
