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Aphidinae : Macrosiphini : Myzus philadelphi
 

 

Myzus philadelphi

Striped hydrangea aphid

On this page: Identification & Distribution Other aphids on the same host

Identification & Distribution

Adult apterae of Myzus philadelphi are orange-red in life, with four conspicuous dark green-black dorsal transverse stripes, and a similar dark longitudinal stripe running down from abdominal tergite IV between the siphunculi to the tip of the cauda (see first picture below). The antennae, siphunculi, and most of the legs are dark, with the bases of the femora dusky. The head is spiculose. The antennal tubercles are gibbous (= convex at both edges), though hardly protruding inwards. The antennae are 6-segmented, and are 0.88-1.09 times the body length. Antennal segment III in the aptera is without secondary rhinaria. The dorsum is membranous. The siphunculi are slightly swollen on the distal part (cf. the fundatrices of Rhopalosiphoninus deutzifoliae on Philadelphus, which has the siphunculi strongly swollen). The cauda is triangular, only a little longer than its basal width, and with 4-8 hairs (cf. Glendenningia philadelphi, which has the cauda broad-based, with a drawn-out conical papilliform tip). The body length of adult Myzus philadelphi apterae is 2.2-2.6 mm.

Note: the only adult in the first picture below is in the centre of the picture with a newly born nymph, all others are immatures. The conspicuous dark stripes on Myzus philadelphi disappear on clarified slide mounts.

Both images above copyright Onidiras, iNaturalist under a creative common licence.

The alate Myzus philadelphi is blackish-red, with similar, but more extensive, black markings on the dorsal abdomen. Secondary rhinaria on antennal segment III are bunched together on the basal half of the segment.

Myzus philadelphi are monoecious on members of the Hydrangeaceae (Philadelphus satsumi, Deutzia crenata, Hydrangea macrophylla form otaksa). They are holocyclic, and the fundatrix on Philadelphus has been described by Miyazaki (1971). Myzus philadelphi is found in Japan and Korea.

 

Other aphids on the same host

Myzus philadelphi is found on 1 Philadelphus species (Philadelphus satsumi).

Myzus philadelphi is found on 1 Deutzia species (Deutzia crenata).

Myzus philadelphi is found on 1 Hydrangea species (Hydrangea macrophylla).

Acknowledgements

We especially thank Onidiras for putting his images of Myzus philadelphi under a creative commons licence.

We have used information from Miyazaki (1971) and Choi et al. (2019) along with information from Roger Blackman & Victor Eastop in Aphids on Worlds Plants. We fully acknowledge these authors, and those listed in the reference sections, 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).

Useful weblinks

References

  • Choi, H. et al. (2019). Taxonomic review of genus Myzus (Hemiptera: Aphididae) in the Korean peninsula, with descriptions of three new species. Journal of Asia-Pacific Entomology 22(3), Full text

  • Miyazaki, M. (1971). A revision of the tribe Macrosiphini of Japan (Homoptera: Aphididae, Aphidinae). Insecta Matsumurana 34(1), (p. 128) Full text