: Specialized piercing-sucking stylets for extracting phloem sap.
: Harbor Buchnera aphidicola bacteria to synthesize essential amino acids absent in sap. aphididae
: Asexual reproduction where females produce live clones of themselves, allowing for explosive population growth. aphididae
: Arose in the late Cretaceous (~100 Mya), with a major radiation occurring roughly 10 Mya alongside angiosperms. 🪲 Physical Characteristics aphididae
: Divided into 24 subfamilies, including Aphidinae , which contains roughly half of all species.
: Alternation between asexual summer generations and a sexual generation in autumn that lays overwintering eggs.
: Belong to order Hemiptera (true bugs) and suborder Sternorrhyncha .