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Species
Macrosiphum euphorbiae Thomas, 1878
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The potato aphid Macrosiphum euphorbiae infests over than 200 plant species in more than 20 plant families, including several commercially important crops.
M. euphorbiae originated in North America but it has spread to the temperate parts of Europe and Asia and is found in all areas in which potatoes are grown. It has been introduced into Europe in 1917 and infestations occur commonly on potato, beet, cabbage, glasshouse plants (such as lettuce, endive, red pepper, aubergine and cucumber), wild plants and flowers, including silver ragwort (Senecio), Chrysanthemum, dahlia, carnation and pink (Dianthus).
M. euphorbiae aphids range from light green, yellowish green to pinkish red greyish-green to pink, spindle-shaped with antennae longer than body and brown on the apical half; its siphunculi are cylindrical and very long; cauda finger-shaped with 8-11 setae. It often has a darker stripe down the centre of its back, especially in immature nymphs. This species has noticeably long legs, and two long siphunculi at the rear end.
The potato aphid colonies increase rapidly from early spring onwards and can double in less than 3 days, and 30 to nymphs may produced by each virginopara.
It can cause physical damage to foliage resulting in yield loss when populations are high. In lettuce crops small numbers can persist late into autumn and will affect marketability. On the contrary, it is of little importance in the field as a virus vector of potato viruses, even if it can transmit over 50 plant viruses, mainly of the non- persistent variety, but less efficiencly than Myzus persicae. In particular it is known to transmit the potato leaf roll virus, the beet mild yellowing virus, the beet yellows virus and the lettuce mosaic virus.
The parthenogenetic females of M. euphorbiae showed a chromosome number of 2n=10.
License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ |
Rights holder/Author | Mauro Mandrioli, Mauro Mandrioli |
Source | No source database. |
Syntype for Siphonophora fragariae immaculata Riley, 1875
Catalog Number: USNM 398482.003
Collection: Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, Department of Entomology
Sex/Stage: ; Unknown
Preparation: Slide section
Collector(s): W. Hopkins
Year Collected: 1875
Locality: Kansas City, Jackson, Missouri, United States
- Syntype: Riley, C. V. 1875. Colmans Rural World. December
License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ |
Rights holder/Author | This image was obtained from the Smithsonian Institution. Unless otherwise noted, this image or its contents may be protected by international copyright laws. |
Source | http://collections.mnh.si.edu/search/ento/?irn=9322753 |
Syntype for Siphonophora fragariae immaculata Riley, 1875
Catalog Number: USNM 398482.002
Collection: Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, Department of Entomology
Sex/Stage: Female;;; Adult; Wings Apterous
Preparation: Slide section
Collector(s): W. Hopkins
Year Collected: 1875
Locality: Kansas City, Jackson, Missouri, United States
- Syntype: Riley, C. V. 1875. Colmans Rural World. December
License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ |
Rights holder/Author | This image was obtained from the Smithsonian Institution. Unless otherwise noted, this image or its contents may be protected by international copyright laws. |
Source | http://collections.mnh.si.edu/search/ento/?irn=9322752 |
Syntype for Siphonophora fragariae immaculata Riley, 1875
Catalog Number: USNM 398482.001
Collection: Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, Department of Entomology
Sex/Stage: Female;;; Adult; Wings Apterous
Preparation: Slide section
Collector(s): W. Hopkins
Year Collected: 1875
Locality: Kansas City, Jackson, Missouri, United States
- Syntype: Riley, C. V. 1875. Colmans Rural World. December
License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ |
Rights holder/Author | This image was obtained from the Smithsonian Institution. Unless otherwise noted, this image or its contents may be protected by international copyright laws. |
Source | http://collections.mnh.si.edu/search/ento/?irn=9322751 |
Virus / infection vector
Bearded Iris Mosaic virus is spread by Macrosiphum euphorbiae
Virus / infection vector
Lettuce Mosaic virus is spread by Macrosiphum euphorbiae
Plant / hibernates / on
egg of Macrosiphum euphorbiae overwinters on Rosa
Foodplant / sap sucker
Macrosiphum euphorbiae sucks sap of Magnoliopsida
Foodplant / sap sucker
Macrosiphum euphorbiae sucks sap of live shoot (young) of Solanum tuberosum
Foodplant / sap sucker
Macrosiphum euphorbiae sucks sap of live shoot (young) of Lycopersicon esculentum
Foodplant / sap sucker
Macrosiphum euphorbiae sucks sap of live shoot (young) of Lactuca sativa
Foodplant / sap sucker
Macrosiphum euphorbiae sucks sap of live shoot (young) of Aquilegia
Foodplant / sap sucker
Macrosiphum euphorbiae sucks sap of live shoot (young) of Dianthus caryophyllus garden hybrids
Foodplant / sap sucker
Macrosiphum euphorbiae sucks sap of live shoot (young) of Pericallis x hybrida
Foodplant / sap sucker
Macrosiphum euphorbiae sucks sap of live shoot (young) of Callistephus chinensis
Foodplant / sap sucker
Macrosiphum euphorbiae sucks sap of live shoot (young) of Dendranthema
Foodplant / sap sucker
Macrosiphum euphorbiae sucks sap of live shoot (young) of Dahlia
Foodplant / sap sucker
Macrosiphum euphorbiae sucks sap of live shoot (young) of Gladiolus
Foodplant / sap sucker
Macrosiphum euphorbiae sucks sap of live shoot (young) of Alcea rosea
Foodplant / sap sucker
Macrosiphum euphorbiae sucks sap of live shoot (young) of Iris
Foodplant / sap sucker
Macrosiphum euphorbiae sucks sap of live shoot (young) of Lathyrus odoratus
Foodplant / sap sucker
Macrosiphum euphorbiae sucks sap of live shoot (young) of Fragaria
Foodplant / sap sucker
Macrosiphum euphorbiae sucks sap of live shoot (young) of Tulipa
Foodplant / sap sucker
Macrosiphum euphorbiae sucks sap of live shoot (young) of Zantedeschia aethiopica
Foodplant / sap sucker
Macrosiphum euphorbiae sucks sap of live shoot (young) of Zinnia elegans
Virus / infection vector
Narcissus Yellow Stripe virus is spread by Macrosiphum euphorbiae
Virus / infection vector
Tulip Breaking virus is spread by Macrosiphum euphorbiae
The following is a representative barcode sequence, the centroid of all available sequences for this species.
There are 6 barcode sequences available from BOLD and GenBank.
Below is a sequence of the barcode region Cytochrome oxidase subunit 1 (COI or COX1) from a member of the species.
See the BOLD taxonomy browser for more complete information about this specimen and other sequences.
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Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLDS) Stats
Public Records: 9
Specimens with Barcodes: 145
Species With Barcodes: 1
Macrosiphum euphorbiae, the potato aphid, is a sap-sucking pest insect in the family Aphididae. It infests potatoes and a number of other commercially important crops.
Distribution[edit]
Macrosiphum euphorbiae originated in North America but it has spread to the temperate parts of Europe and Asia and is found in all areas in which potatoes are grown.[2]
Description[edit]
The wingless female potato aphid is green or occasionally pink, often with a darker dorsal stripe. It has a pear-shaped body reaching about four millimetres long. The antennae are dark at the joints between the segments and are longer than the body. They are set on outward facing tubercles. The legs are longer than in other aphids, pale green but darker at the apices. The siphunculi are pale coloured, cylindrical with dark tips and operculi, and are about one third the length of the body. The tail is sword-shaped and bears 6 to 12 hairs and is much shorter than the siphunculi. The winged female has a uniform darker coloured body and appendages and has a green abdomen. The nymphs are like miniature versions of the adults and go through several moults in the course of about ten days.[3][4]
The green biotype is most often found on the lower, older leaves of potato plants whereas the pink biotype had no such preference. The numerical predominance of the green biotype was greater on older plants.[5]
Biology[edit]
Female potato aphids overwinter on weeds, the sprouts of potatoes in storage and on lettuce under glass.[4] They usually emerge in April and begin feeding on perennial weeds, preferring plants in the Chenopodiaceae family. In May or early June, they migrate to potato, cabbage, tomato and others crops where they feed on shoots, the lower side of leaves, buds and flowers, often on the lower parts of the plant. They are highly polyphagous, feeding on over two hundred species in more than twenty plant families, but their preference is for plants in the Solanaceae family.[4] The female produces up to seventy young by parthenogenesis over the course of three to six weeks and there may be ten generations over the summer.[3] The optimum temperature for population increase is 68°F.[6] When populations build up, winged individuals are produced and fly off to infest new host plants. The production of winged individuals is also dependent on the day length, the temperature, the parent type (winged or wingless) and the generation.[7]
Management[edit]
Various factors influence aphid populations. High temperatures or heavy rainfall may reduce infestations and the numbers are naturally controlled by predators, parasites and pathogens.[8] Some plant varieties are more resistant to attack than others. In a study on tomatoes, it was shown that the aphids preferred smooth to hairy leaves and that susceptible tomato plants had higher sucrose, lower quinic acid and higher alanine and tyrosine levels.[9] In lettuce, butterhead varieties are mostly moderately to highly resistant to the aphid whereas crisphead varieties are susceptible.[10] If numbers of aphids are sufficiently high, chemical control can be attempted using insecticidal soaps. This is not always effective because the aphids usually congregate on the underside of lower leaves where they are difficult to reach with sprays.[11]
Disease spread[edit]
A number of virus diseases are spread by Macrosiphum euphorbiae. These include lettuce mosaic virus, bearded iris mosaic virus, narcissus yellow stripe virus, tulip breaking virus,[12]potato leaf roll virus, potato virus Y, beet mild yellowing virus and beet yellows virus.[4]
References[edit]
- ^ Crop Protection Compendium
- ^ Crop Knowledge Master
- ^ a b AgroAtlas
- ^ a b c d Rothamsted Research
- ^ Comparison of the Distributions of the Pink and the Green Biotypes of the Potato Aphid, Macrosiphum euphorbiae (Thos.), on Potato Plants
- ^ Barlow, C. A. 1962. The Influence of Temperature on the Growth of Experimental Populations of Myzus persicae (Sulzer) and Macrosiphium euphorbiae (Thomas) (Aphididae). Can. J. Zool. 40: 146-156.
- ^ MacGillivray, M. E. and G. B. Anderson. 1964. The Effect of Photoperiod and Temperature on the Production of Gamic and Agamic Forms in Macrosiphium euphorbiae (Thomas). Can. J. Zool. 42: 491-510.
- ^ Walker, G. P., L. R. Nault, and D.E. Simonet. 1984. Natural Mortality Factors Acting on Potato Aphid (Macrosiphum euphorbiae) Populations in Processing-Tomato Fields in Ohio. Environ. Entomol. 13(3): 724-732.
- ^ Quiros, C. F., M. A. Stevens, C. M. Rick, M. L. Kok-Yokomi. 1977. Resistance in Tomato to the Pink Form of the Potato Aphid
- ^ Reinink, K and F. L. Dieleman. 1989. Resistance in Lettuce to the Leaf Aphids Macrosiphum euphorbiae and Uroleucon sonchi. Ann. Appl. Biol. 115(3): 489-498.
- ^ Koehler, C. S., L. W. Barclay and T. M. Kretchun. 1983. Pests in the Home Garden. California Agriculture. 37(9/10): 11-12.
- ^ Encyclopedia of Life
License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ |
Rights holder/Author | Wikipedia |
Source | http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Macrosiphum_euphorbiae&oldid=587780141 |