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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) » Woolly Aphids and Gall-making Aphids (Eriosomatinae)

Photo#260310

Copyright © 2009 MrILoveTheAnts

Underground Aphid

Somerdale , Camden County, New Jersey, USA
March 23, 2009
Size: Must be 3mm or less

I always see citronella ants, Lasius claviger, working these for food but I'd like to know more about them.

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Underground Aphid

Underground Aphid

Underground Aphid - Lasius claviger

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Contributed by MrILoveTheAnts on 23 March, 2009 - 9:22pm
Last updated 12 April, 2010 - 9:45pm

Moved

Moved from unidentified root aphids.

… Charley Eiseman, 12 April, 2010 - 9:45pm

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Moved

Moved from Aphids.

… Charley Eiseman, 2 December, 2009 - 10:49pm

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Same question

I also am intrigued by these white hemipterans when I find them with ants as I did yesterday at Pound Ridge in NY. Do the ants carry them up to foliage to feed later in the season or do they spend their entire lives undergound with the ants? If they do so, what do they feed upon? Roots maybe? Secretions from the ants who in turn feed on the aphid secretions. Anybody know? Thanks.

… Harry Zirlin, 13 April, 2009 - 4:59pm

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These aphids feed on the root

These aphids feed on the roots but I occasionally see them in decomposing wood structures. Probably feeding on microscopic fungi or something like that when not sucking on roots. They are entirely subterranean like the ants.

… MrILoveTheAnts, 13 April, 2009 - 5:53pm

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Thanks

Weird life style, they look like cave critters having lost all pigment. I wonder if they are blind as well.

… Harry Zirlin, 14 April, 2009 - 10:00am

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Subterranean

Both ants and aphids spend virtually all their lives underground, so in essence, are like cave dwellers. The ants have very tiny eyes, almost certainly not able to form an image.

… James C. Trager, 28 May, 2010 - 11:56am

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