WildBristol.uk - Discovering Wildlife in Bristol

Other names include: Reed aphid. Found on where the plants had been completely decimated. Parasites: Ephedrus plagiator, Aphidius transcaspicus. The ectoparasitic mites Allothrombium triticium, Erythraeus ankaraicus.

Life story: Alternates between its winter host (Prunus species, mainly plum but also apricot, and perhaps peach or almond) and its summer host (Reeds (Phragmites), Giant Cane (Arundo donax) and other wetland grasses). Some remain on prunus all the year round. H. pruni is cosmopolitan, but may have geographical races or subspecies. Eggs overwinter on Prunus species, hatching in April usually by the white bud stage, to give the fundatrices (sexually reproduced offspring - females (the first to hatch). These live inside curls of newly expanding plum and blackthorn leaves. The fundatrix differs from later apterous generations in having shorter 5 antennae with only 5 segments, about 1/3 the body length, and shorter legs and siphunculi.