Significance

• Aphids are particularly a nuisance because they enjoy living part of their life cycles on garden plants and commercial crops, which have been reported to include lettuces and fruits such as radishes, peaches, turnips as well as tobacco and soy crop plants. In addition to the destruction caused directly by the insect, (particularly leaf damage), the insect is a notorious carrier of viruses that are known to kill the host plants.
  
  

Time Frame

• In the wild, the life span of the aphid is about a month or so, give or take 10 days.
  
  The larval life span has four stages. The lifespan of each larval stage is between one and two days, with approximately 10 days from egg to reproduction.
  
  

Types

• The asexually reproducing form of the insect, called fundatrix, is able to lay dozens of larvae. Reports vary from three to 30 dozen per insect, depending on the species. Larvae come to life in the early spring, reproducing as they move from area to area along the primary plant.
  
  Comprised of of many different species, aphids are widely divergent in color. Female larvae generally are hatched green, and they yellow as they mature. However, some aphid breeds have red larvae.
  
  

Generations

• After several generations, a winged form of the insect leaves the original or primary host plant, usually by mid-June, and then lays eggs on a secondary host that might be of a different species. The larvae on the secondary host are able to give rise to female insects that mate and eventually lay eggs on the primary host plant in the fall. Eggs are laid at the bottom of the plant flower.
  
  

Considerations

• Some of the non-reproducing larvae become protectors for those aphid larvae that eventually will reproduce. The movement of the larvae from site to site is seen as an evolutionary mechanism to keep as many larvae safe as possible by allowing them to seek out as many supportive host environments as possible.