Moved from Chaitophorus.

Moved from Aphids.

The aphids in my photos are Chaitophorus populicola

Descriptions of female apterous viviparous C. populicola vary since Thomas (1878) first described the species. Richards (1972) described it as simply "shining black," whereas Thomas (1878) described it as follows: "Reddish- brown, or tortoise-shell color; a large,yellowish, triangular or Y-shaped spot, (the forks pointing backwards) on the middle part of the abdomen; honey-tubes reduced to simple tubercles, yellow. There is often a palish stripe along the middle of the head and thorax. Antennae pale yellowish at the base. Length
about .05 of an inch." (Cyrus Thomas [1878] List of the species of the tribe Aphidini, Family Aphididae, found in the United States, which have been heretofore named, with Descriptions of some new species. Illinois State Laboratory Natural History. The Natural History of Illinois: Bulletin No. 2:3-16.

Miriam Palmer 1952 (Aphids of the Rocky Mountain Region, Thomas Say Foundation) described the black form and the colored form under two different names, Periphyllus bruneri and Periphyllus populicolus, which Lambers (1960) synonymized under Chaitophorus populicola (Lambers DHR [1960] The genus Chaitophorus Koch in North America (Homoptera, Aphididae). Tijdschrift Voor Entomologie 103(½):1-30). Lambers and others consider the smoky wing venation of alatae as practically diagnostic of C. populicola.