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Photo#353974
Another Giant Aphid? - Longistigma caryae

Another Giant Aphid? - Longistigma caryae
Montrose, Laurens County, Georgia, USA
November 15, 2009
I originally thought this was just another giant aphid, but when other aphids came up looking rather flatter, I began to question my ID. Is this one pregnant or something? Aren't these bugs parthenogenic? I am confused. Nothing new. Is this just a Bark Louse larva or something?

Moved
Moved from Giant Aphids.

Moved
Moved from ID Request.

Giant Bark Aphid looks like
a really close match to me.



This one's almost as round as yours.

Edit: Having looked around a bit more, some of the giant willow aphid pics are quite similar as well. Did you happen to make note of the host plant? From what I gather, the willow aphid sticks pretty much to willows while the bark aphid is more of a generalist.

 
Yeah, that's what I thought at first,
but the body shape suggests the abdomen is normal for this animal instead of distended. If you look at the head and thorax you will note they are quite flat. In fact, the overall shape suggests to me a Bark Louse without wings.???? I took this shot in an oak tree along with others of a herd of the regularly-shaped Giant Bark aphids and their ant attendants a few branches away. This is all new to me, so maybe I am making a mountain out of a molehill.

 
I'm fairly sure
it's a giant aphid of some kind. I'm just not certain which species (although it's being in an oak tree would make my first hunch--bark aphid--more probable). I'm not terribly impressed at the slightly different shape. It's normal to find a bit of variation among the members of a population.