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Uroleucon hypochoeridis

Large cat's ear aphid

On this page: Identification & Distribution 

Identification & Distribution:

Uroleucon hypochoeridis is a large pinkish-grey aphid with pale legs that are darkened towards the apices of the segments. Abdominal hairs are placed on scleroites and the crescent-shaped antesiphuncular sclerites are prominent. The coxae are dusky or dark, darker than the basal parts of femora. The cauda is pale usually with about 17 hairs. The apical segment of the rostrum is rarely longer than segment 2 of the hind tarsus (0.84-1.08 times its length). Uroleucon hypochoeridis nymphs are grey with a reddish-pink suffusion around the bases of the siphunculi.

The clarified slide mounts below are of adult viviparous female Uroleucon hypochoeridis : wingless, and winged.

Micrographs of clarified mounts  by permission of Roger Blackman, copyright AWP  all rights reserved.

The large cat's ear aphid lives on the stems of cat's ear (Hypochoeris radicata), autumn hawkbit (Leontodon autumnalis) and related species.

Acknowledgements

Our particular thanks to Roger Blackman for images of his clarified slide mounts.

We have made provisional identifications from high resolution photos of living specimens, along with host plant identity. In the great majority of cases, identifications have been confirmed by microscopic examination of preserved specimens. We have used the keys and species accounts of Blackman & Eastop (1994)  and Blackman & Eastop (2006)  supplemented with Blackman (1974) , Stroyan (1977) , Stroyan (1984) , Blackman & Eastop (1984) , Heie (1980-1995) , Dixon & Thieme (2007)  and Blackman (2010) . We fully acknowledge these authors as the source for the (summarized) taxonomic information we have presented. Any errors in identification or information are ours alone, and we would be very grateful for any corrections. For assistance on the terms used for aphid morphology we suggest the figure  provided by Blackman & Eastop (2006).

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