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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Hexapods (Hexapoda) » Insects (Insecta) » True Bugs, Cicadas, Hoppers, Aphids and Allies (Hemiptera) » Plant-parasitic Hemipterans (Sternorrhyncha) » Aphidoidea » Aphids (Aphididae) » Aphidinae » Aphidini » Aphidina » Aphis
Photo#1692508
Aphis asclepiadis? - Aphis
Copyright © 2019 Jack Connor

Aphis asclepiadis? - Aphis
Port Republic, Atlantic County, New Jersey, USA
July 11, 2019
I believe these are Aphis asclepiadis but am not certain. They are the right color; they are feeding on common milkweed; and they are being tended by ants, which according to Anurag Agrawal in his Monarch & Milkweeds (2017) differentiates them from the two other milkweed-feeding aphids that I think are most likely in my area: A. oleander and Myzocallis asclepiadis. The color also distinguishes them as far as I understand. I will try to attach two other images -- one of adults mating and another of an ant taking "honeydew" from the rear of an individual.

Images of this individual: tag all
Aphis asclepiadis? - Aphis Aphis asclepiadis? - Aphis - male - female Aphis asclepiadis? - Aphis
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Contributed by Jack Connor on 13 July, 2019 - 4:22pm
Last updated 15 January, 2020 - 1:53pm

Moved
Moved from Aphids.
… Natalie Hernandez, 15 January, 2020 - 1:53pm login or register to post comments

You're probably right.
Myzocallis asclepiadis looks very different than Aphis sp. with dark plates in vertical rows down the back. Aphis nerii (The oleander aphid) is bright orange with black siphunculi and a black cauda, the winged specimen you photographed looks like Aphis nerii. These specimens obviously don't fit that description so I'd agree with your conclusion. To be 100% positive I'd need to slide mount a specimen and look at a few characters, including the genital plate, which would be divided on the anterior half in Aphis asclepiadis.
… Natalie Hernandez, 26 July, 2019 - 6:02pm login or register to post comments

 
Thank you for your expertise
NH:

I appreciate very much you taking the time to look at my photos and give me some help.

One interesting event subsequent to the photos: the little "colony" of potential A. asclepiades disappeared from this plant a day or two later. I assume a predator or predators ate them all. Although we now have thousands of A. nerii all over our many common milkweeds (as we usually do in our yard each summer), I have been unable to find any more apparent A. asclepiades.
… Jack Connor, 27 July, 2019 - 3:39pm login or register to post comments

 
That is interesting.
I don't think these species host alternate so I would expect them to leave the plant. Aphis nerii tend to move down to the roots to overwinter once the plants start to die down in the fall, but obviously you saw all the A. nerii still on the plant.

Aphids do some crazy things.
… Natalie Hernandez, 15 January, 2020 - 1:53pm login or register to post comments

Moved
Moved from ID Request.
… Ken Wolgemuth, 13 July, 2019 - 7:10pm login or register to post comments

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