Aphids - Science topic

Identification Marks of Aphid craccivora

Size: Small, ranging from 1.5 to 2.5 mm long.

Color: Shiny black or dark brown.

Body Shape: Globular.

Legs: Brown to yellow.

Antennae: Six-segmented, pale proximally (close to the body) and dark distally (further from the body).

Cauda: Prominent, tail-like protrusion.

Cornicles: Black, long, cylindrical, slightly expanding at the base, and imbricated.

Wax: Nymphs are lightly dusted with wax, while adults lack wax on their dorsal surface.

For more information follow the link:

This indicates that the alate populations of the aphids had previously entered in the field. After their arrival, they have colonized and reproduced. The wingless aphids that you are seeing now are the later progenies.

Thank you so much

Calculating the exact mustard aphid population on rapeseed plants can be challenging due to their small size and constant movement. However, there are several methods to estimate their population density: Direct counting : This involves physically counting the number of aphids on a representative sample of plants. This method is time-consuming and can be inaccurate for large areas. Sweep sampling : This method involves using an insect net to sweep a specific area of the crop canopy and then counting the dislodged aphids. The number of aphids collected is then extrapolated to estimate the population density per unit area. Yellow pan traps : These traps use yellow sticky cards to attract and trap aphids. The number of aphids trapped over a specific period can be used to estimate the population density in the surrounding area. It's important to note that these methods only provide an estimate of the aphid population, and the accuracy can vary depending on the specific method used and the skill of the person conducting the sampling.

Normally you need to choose a sample size at your end and also check for the ETL of aphid on apple tree. As the ETL is always different for different plants and different stageskhan

I was going to chime in with what Shashidhar already said: because they don't meet the definition of social insects. There are other works on them and their social behaviors, but they aren't truely eusocial because there aren't reproductive castes, division of labor, etc.

Changes in plant resistance to insect pest infestation could be brought about by the soil's lack of moisture and nutrients. This might be why aphid infestation in drought environments is seen as more severe than in irrigated fields.

Do you have access to gas/ liquid chromatographer and mass spectrometer? If yes, you need to extract the leaves and seeds in a HP(polar for HPLC and non-polar for GC) and run the extract on HPLC-MS or GC-MS. Terpenoids are mostly non-polar so GC and GC-MS is probably a better bet for you than HPLC.

Black bean aphid is the sucking pest which sucks the cell sap from the plant parts resulting yellowing, curling, wilting, and finally death of the entire plant. Similarly they also aids to transmit viral disease which results change in the texture of the plant and its part.

Needs to study literatures based on the biotic potential of aphids in life table analysis

Yes it was much important to mention phytosanitary treatments in publications. Other wise there will be huge biodiversity loss to countries by invasive pests, diseases and weeds. That's why we should plan our experiments with proper care and follow all phytosanitary verifications.

Aphids prefer phloem tissue cells to feed upon the essential amino acids from the plant. Aphid feeding requires the secretion of saliva from their salivary glands facilitates intracellular penetration and phloem feeding. It also prevents them from plant defences. From the secreted saliva of the aphids the plant can get the harmful viruses.

This article may be helpful: 10.1111/j.1570-7458.2011.01117.x

Hi Mônica,

Some Nemesia viruses:

* Angelonia flower break virus (AFBV)

* Impatiens necrotic spot orthotospovirus (INSV)

* Nemesia ring necrosis virus (NeRNV)

* Tobacco mosaic virus (TMV)

* Tomato mosaic virus (ToMV)

* Tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV)

* Verbena latent virus (VeLV)

References:

Hope it helps,

All the best,

Jean

Hi Eduardo Engel,

It is mainly studies in microbiology that have applied these methods, and I know of no study that has done this on host-parasitoid or prey-predator networks. I think the general principle is the same though.

You will probably have to think about applying a time-lag in your models, to take into account the development time of parasitoids in aphids. I enclose 4 publications that have studied these questions, with models that are relatively easy to implement in R.

Of course the main issue would be that you cannot directly link parasitoid abundances to the biological control service provided (correlation is not causation).

We can continue to discuss by mail if you want, and see what we can do together on this subject if you are interested.

Kevin

There is a record of this species detected in Japanese quarantine. This paper may help.

There are some reports indicating

Boron known to inhibit the movement of virus particle in pladmodesmota.

Hi,

There are so many ways, yet I would prefer R (Rstudio) software for this.

More methods could be found here: -

doi: 10.1111/j.2007.0906-7590.05171.x

Cheers,

Thank you 🙏

Insect pest monitoring is typically performed in agriculture and forestry to assess the pest status in given locations (i.e., greenhouse, field, orchard/vineyard, forest) by collecting information about the target pest presence, abundance, and distribution. Within the integrated pest management programs in agriculture, the final goal of insect pest monitoring is to provide growers with a practical decision-making tool. Typically, an automatic trap equipped with a camera involves two modules: the hardware and the software. The hardware is typically composed of the trap structure containing the bait and retaining the trapped insects, an electronic box including the camera, a data transmission modem, a battery, and eventually an external power supply, such as a solar panel. The software is composed of the online repository in which the capture data pictures are stored and accessed plus optional image analysis algorithms to automatically identify and count the captures. Trap design may vary according to the target pest to be monitored, as detailed in this section.

Some to be considered: An automatic trap prototype modifying a commercial trap (Pomotrap®, currently Carpo® by Isagro S.p.A., Milan, Italy) with data acquisition and data transfer systems to monitor the codling moth Cydia pomonella L. (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) in apple orchards;

‘Jackson trap’ was equipped with a camera device for the automatic monitoring of the Mediterranean fruit fly Ceratitis capitata Wiedemann (Diptera: Tephritidae)

Bucket traps are typically adopted to monitor fruit flies where a camera-based electronic McPhail trap was used to monitor by remote the olive fruit fly Bactrocera oleae Gmelin (Diptera: Tephritidae).

Agriculture operators are now facing the ‘Big Data Analysis’ prospect: organize, aggregate and interpret the massive sample size of available digital data with sophisticated algorithms to drive decisions based on data interpretation, prediction, and inference potentially on a global scale.

Camera-based insect monitoring can be exploited not only for pest monitoring but also for early detection and survey, allowing a prompt reaction especially for invasive species. There is a potential perspective to interconnect traps among sites and create a network at local, regional, country, continental, and global scales.

Dear Tabassum,

In this article (attached), you can note that researchers conserved their antioxidant enzymes in −20 °C to minimize their activities, and prevent their degradation process.

Best wishes

It is not an aphid, but I think it is thrips.

Hi, Labitems is supplying them … here is the the link for their products … https://www.labitems.co.in/product-page/clip-cages-4f2511

Thanks

There are many studies that use a combination of both entomopathogens and that generate higher mortality. As Fungis have a long life cycle, you must apply them first and after 2 days you can apply EPN.

short time frame mean u can conduct the experiment in laboratory and confirm it on potted plants. Atleast three day require to know its toxicity like botanicals.

If you need a non-pesticidal method, confine numerous coccinellid adults in a cage. Once all aphids are not visible, shake the coccinellid of the set up.

You can increase the preference and then the performance/effectiveness if you know the preferential feeding behaviour of a given predator. Which species you meant by black aphids, there are many black aphid species; I guess you meant Aphis fabae. If this is the case, this species is known as a highly ant-attended aphid, and these ants often defend strongly their aphids from predators like Coccinella Spetempunctata (ants attack and often exclude successfully natural enemies of aphids). Hence, for increasing the preference/ effeciency :

1. manage ant population away from aphid colonies

2. apply a specific managment on the target landscape : flowering strip, intercropping system, banker plants, ..

3. using ladybird attractants like E-b-Farnesene

Look at Dewar, Alan M., Godfrey J. Dean, and Ray Cannon. "Assessment of methods for estimating the numbers of aphids (Hemiptera: Aphididae) in cereals." Bulletin of Entomological Research 72.4 (1982): 675-685.

Thank all. Learn more from your ideas

There should not be any problem, as those are universal primers for invertebrates mt COI gene.

It is very true that temperature plays a crucial role in the development of aphids. An added temperature will produce winged ones but at the same time the predatory fauna will also be multiplied at a faster rate. In this condition, the population of aphids will decline.

Malt extract agar midium

I agree with Tawfiq M. Al Antary

The best regard

S.Mahmoudvand

Dear Prosanta Kumar Dash

Localized irrigation is the optimal method for this purpose.

First, monitoring of soil moisture by the use of sensors (capacitance) is a must.

The use of drip irrigation system is one of the solutions. Drip irrigation should be well managed (flow and frequency) and combined with a fertigation program in order to optimize root wetted area and minimize nutrient leaching.

11# Gene Expression Profiling in Winged and Wingless Cotton Aphids

Dear Dr. Pal; How delightful to speak to someone else who cultures from frass. It depends on whether the organisms you are interested in actually grow in frass, or are simply able to survive passage through the insect gut. I work with snails, and there are some pathogens whose spore germination is stimulated by passage through the snail gut; these organisms do not grow in the excrement itself, however. I take the infested snail frass and plate it on suitable media.

Thank for Rebeca Peña Martinez and Andrey

Lu

Rebeca Peña Martinez Andrey Valer'evich Stekolshchikov

It will work best if the product is similar. Do not use steam distillation or use a microwave. A cold extraction method may take a bit more time (3 to 7 days), but will be the safest.

I agree with Dr Hussain. DMSO is not suitable for extraction due to toxic nature. You should try 70% methanolic water solution or 100% methanol for extraction. the ratio of the solvent should keep in to 1:10 (W/V) material/solvent.

The aphid should be reared on the host plant they were collected from, or should be reared for multiple generations on a new host plant before testing. The issue is that you do not want host plant stresses to influence bioassay outcomes. The number of generations depends on how great the move. If you collect A. gossypii from cotton and insist on rearing it on wheat you may need 40 or more generations.

Most artificial diets only keep the adults alive. Reproduction is better on a natural host. So the question is then what is the effect of dietary stress on the insect, and how does this interact with the effect of the insecticide.

Consistency is often more important than specifics. You could test all the insects in the laboratory at 28C and 42% relative humidity with a 16:8 light:dark cycle, or you could treat all the insects outside and see what happens. Sometimes one uses augmentative release of pests to insure that all treatments have (roughly) the same pest pressure at the start of the experiment. The choice made should be determined by the questions asked.

The laboratory experiment is more controlled, but the results are less relevant to field conditions. It is not reasonable to expect a grower to carefully dip each plant in his 10 acre field, yet we routinely apply an even coating to a petri dish as part of a bioassay. More commonly the grower will spray the field and some leaves will be missed, many will have discrete deposits leaving other areas untreated. While the patter looks uniform to people, an aphid views the entire field on a very different spatial scale.

Ref.3

Hi Aaron,

You could either rear your aphids on a corn seedling in a pot or using detached leaf system:

A cleaner method for in vitro culture of aphids is also available here:

Interesting

Zhaozhi:

According to CABI datasheet, Diuraphis noxia is distributed in Xinjiang-Uigur Autonomous Region of the Peoples Republic of China, however D. noxia has not spread to the major wheat-growing area of central China, but there is concern that it may do so in the future (Zhang, 1991). D. noxia has recently been found in Chile and Argentina but has not yet become a pest (Reed and Kindler, 1994). D. noxia has been found in Kenya where it is considered a pest, and biological control is being investigated.

D. noxia spread to 17 western states in the USA and three western provinces in Canada within 3 years of its introduction, it has not spread eastward in the USA or Canada (Webster and Amosson, 1994). D. noxia has not spread much into central or northern Europe.

D. noxia has been detected in South Australia for the first time where it has been found in cereal crops in the Mid-North (Government of South Australia, 2016). There is also a preliminary report of the pest in Victoria (IPPC, 2016).

Regards,

Luis Miguel Constantino

Assuming that N₁ and N₂ data were obtained during exponential growth the calculated specific growth rate is 0.55 d^-1. The doubling time is 1.25 days.

Luis Miguel Constantino Thanks for your suggestion and info.

Thank you very much Professor Gibbs for your interest and quick respond. Surely I will get in touch with you.

Kind regards.

Put pots of young beans or peppers to attract adults white fly to lay eggs to establish colonies,

or

cut old pepper leaves infected with different stages of white fly (often undesirable for aphids alweys attracted to young leaves) or wipe them with the brush to remove aphids

Typically the method involves developing multiple dose-response curves. This process is easier if the residue is applied uniformly because you have then eliminated variability due to toxicant distribution. This is great so long as all of the resistance in the field is due to biochemical mechanisms. This approach minimizes any behavioral sources of resistance.

Selection pressure is up to you, but a few individuals need to survive and be sufficiently healthy to reproduce. You can use the LD10, or LD50 dose as the selection tool.

Match exposure in the lab to exposure in the field. A systemic insecticide might be best tested mixed with diet, while a contact insecticide test might be more relevant as a thin film.

Be aware that "uniform" to you may not be uniform to the insect. The aphid interacts with its environment often at a sub-millimeter scale to distinguish one cell in a leaf from another.

Sometimes these assays are conducted by placing a droplet of pesticide on the insect cuticle using a microapplicator.

The list of Mackauer and Stary (1967) is very outdated with more than 51 years old, incredible as someone recommends a bibliographical reference so old. The CABI 2018 list that I recommend is the most updated and the most complete containing all the parasitoid species so far reported parasitizing Aphis gossypi.

Have you thought of biological control? Predators like Aphidolites of parasitoids like Aphidius can provide long term control, especially in spaces where they are confined. Both are commercially available. Of course, as the other commenters have stated, you will have to evaluate if this will accect your results.

Please find the plant volatile classes in the following papers.

Wei J.N., Wang L, Zhu J, Zhang S, Nandi OI and Kang L (2007). Plants attract parasitic wasps to defense themselves against insect pests by releasing hexenol. PLoS ONE., 2(9): e852.

Wei, J.N. Zhu, J. and Kang, L. 2006 Volatiles released from bean plants in response to agromyzid files. Planta., 224: 279-287

Wei, J.N. and Kang, L. 2006 Electrophysiological and behavioral responses of a parasitic wasp to host plant volatiles induced by two Liriomyza species. Chemical Senses., 31:467-477

this link is useful

https://www.researchgate.net › ... › Entomology › Hemiptera

regards

It is very difficult to evaluate the volatile effect of a plant or a product in field conditions, however in laboratory conditions you can use a U-shaped olfactomer to see the behavior of the insect in question.

I have put them in the glass bowls with the filter paper below and the top of the glass covered with muslin cloth and few leaves with them, I have been changing the leaves daily. The species is Lipaphis erysimi. My aphids have also multiplied with new nymphs and the adult one which were before are missing.

You may try spray of alum to control snails.

Hi Umair

Here we also use Qiagen and TIANamp kit. I used both and I think they have equal output. According to the protocol, 3 hours is enough for tissue lysis, but I recommend longer time and even over night.

Good luck

Have marked parasitoids with Rubidium via feeding but you can probably spray them too. Search "rubidium"

Thank you Arvind For your guidance .

Dear Norbert AS I work on non-fruit trees (forest trees) , So the purpose is to reduce the loss of biomass (wood).

Thank you for your attention. Mansour Salehi

Thermal fogging is mostly used for killing insects such as mosquitos when they are active and fly outside to look for food. Yes this technique can be successfully used for greenhouses, but environmental safety is required to be looked into.

To my point of view there is no "good delay" LD50 or LD95 should be specify with the corresponding delay like LD50(48h). Those values may be going up to 96h (maximum observed in publications). Take the most significant.

Dear Muahmmad Ashfaq

If the experiments related to viral transmission, Can be found in the RG site on my name, You can ask any question or query I am willing to help and explain

Regards

May be, but there are certain features for each species in aphid.

Dear Bernd,

You have not mentioned some important data influencing the assessment and the outputs of your experiments: what was the aim of your experiment (LD or LC50 value is only a detail), you have laboratory or field experiments, what about the mode of action of the insecticide and so the rapidity of the preparation’s efficiency, is it a contact insecticide acting thorough surface residues or a systemic or translaminar preparation? Many mentioned probit analysis by Finney as a reliable statistical method. There are many programs for it. In lab experiments, generally the Abbot formula works well, the others are mostly used in field experiments when the number of testing animals cannot be preset. Also you can do not to consider the offspring but in case of an insecticide development project, it is not a solution.  The duration of the test may be considered as some mentioned it earlier. I think you should try both, longer and shorter assessment time in order to find the acceptable solution.  I have assessed efficiency of some insecticides on aphids but – fortunately – reproduction did not influence the results because of the very rapidity of the mode of action. By the way, the incidental offspring were killed as well.

20

Also from my experieince, hundrerds from Myzus persicae infested the sweet pepper, on which I reared huge number of M. persicae and these were protected from natural enemies either parasitoieds or preditors. I think it is gregariuos .

The proK enzyme is VERY temperature sensitive.  Don't risk wasting precious samples with a bad enzyme.  Just order more.  Some companies do sell a 4* C stable version or even a shelf-stable.

Depending on your application, you can try rearing the aphids in vitro.  In this way the aphids get their required nutrients from plants while avoiding contamination.

Hi Paola,

thank you very much for your answer. I hope you are doing great as well!

For the moment, I am not searching anymore for further aphid clones, but your suggestion is nevertheless greatly appreciated.

Best wishes,

Karsten

Dear Jung-Wook,

Dr. Anna Whitfield from Kansas State University (http://www.plantpath.k-state.edu/people/faculty/whitfield/)  has been working with Plant-Virus-Vector-Interactions and one of her papers deals with part of your question: http://apsjournals.apsnet.org/doi/abs/10.1094/MPMI-09-13-0287-FI

Paola

There is no general and easy answer to this question. It depends on the species of virus, plant, and vector, respectively. But for some associations of persistently and non-persistently transmitted viruses, it is possible. See http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/pdf/10.1146/annurev.en.30.010185.000443

Dear Jung-Wook,

Regarding that the development of Myzus persicae is holocyclus  (it has a sexual and more asexual = pathenogenic reproduction cycles a year) and heteroecy (it changes host plants)

1) Fundatrix can be found on winter host plants e.g. Prunus persica in early spring

2) Apterous viviparae can be found on summer host plants, their number is more than 400 e.g. Solanaceae

3) Wingless oviparae can be found on winter host plants e.g. Prunus persica in early autumn when they lay eggs

As to the morphology of these forms, you can find them in each normal textbook of agricultural entomology or here http://www.aphidsonworldsplants.info/

Dear Kevin Tougeron

The parasitoids have a very specific behavior towards their hosts so it is better to examine the behavior of the parasitoid towards the different stages of pea aphids and then you can detect if it can develop or not on the male pea aphid. Best Regards.

Aly Younes

Hi Bilal,

Would be better if you specify which aphid species you want to work with. And also you need to be sure what aspect of resistance you want to measure (antibiosis, antixenosis or tolerance). 

As a general procedure for antibiosis, you can quantify the intrinsic rate of increase (rm), or the mean relative growth rate (mrgr). You calculate these two in single seedlings, and  MRGR may be the fastest approach and good approximation to rm.

If you want to measure tolerance, you can have a replicated trial, with two treatments (infested vs. non-infested), use single seedlings of about the same size, and compare biomass loss. This is may seem straight, but requires that you ensure similar conditions to both treatments, and same amount of aphids in each seedling. Depending of the aphid species you want to work, you can evaluate symptoms instead of biomass, for which you only need to infest individual seedlings with a determined amount of aphids and check back the symptoms after 15-20 days.

For antibiosis. Not many people measure this, unless they want to determine the main category of resistance that is operating in particular genotypes. This is because in practical terms, antibiosis is not very reliable in the field.

Cheers,

Leonardo

rather it is a soil fungus

Hi Jubair. Even though so many people claim that this is Beauveria bassiana, I urge you to have your isolate sequenced to make sure which of the about 50 species of Beauveria this is. Things are not as simple any more as 20 years ago.

We use the QIAgen RNeasy mini kit on tiny pieces of insect tissue and it works well. The tricky step with small tissue is the homogenization. Covering the sample with beads and homogenize with a bullet blender worked well here.

Dear Bilal Atta 

Pls. find the attached files

Several factors affecting wings formation in aphids,Diet and pH of diet, plant infected with viral disease, Symbioses, host alternating, Enemy escape ,Temperature, hostplant ageing, insecticides…

Blackman RL, Eastop VF (1994). Aphids on the World's Trees: An Identification and Information Guide. CAB International: Wallingford.

Blackman RL, Eastop VF (2000). Aphids on the World's Crops: An Identification and Information Guide. John Wiley & Sons Ltd.: Chichester

Hoping this will be helpful      

Regards

Prof. Houda Kawas