Pemphigus spirothecae
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Pemphigus spirothecae Passerini, 1856 - (poplar spiral gall aphid)
This aphid is found in Europe, northern Africa and parts of western Asia. It has been also introduced into North America (Foottit et al., 2006). P. spirothecae induces conspicuous, spiral-shaped galls on the petioles of poplar trees.
The life cycle includes 3 parthenogenetic and 1 sexual generation per year. In the last generation, the egg-stage overwinters on the bark of poplar trees and in spring a wingless female (fundatrix) emerges from the egg, moves to a newly emerged poplar leaf and feeds on the petiole, inducing the gall formation. Galls are often formed near the end of the petiole and typically have 2 to 3 spiral turns.
The fundatrix produces two generations of females through parthenogenesis, the second one is winged and leaves the galls in autumn. In addition, some of the progeny in the first generation may be a special soldier caste that defends the gall. There is no alternate host and the winged females disperse and settle on the bark of other poplar trees. Then, each female produces several wingless females and males on the bark, again parthenogenetically. These are short-lived, mate and lay the overwintering eggs.
Synonyms:
Pemphigus spyrothecae
| Vernacular names | |
|---|---|
| • Deutsch: | Spiralgallenlaus |
| • English: | poplar spiral gall aphid |
| • Français: | puceron de la galle spirale du peuplier |
- Other images of Pemphigus spirothecae (Wikimedia Commons and IPM Images - click to enlarge)
gall
opened gall
spiral-shaped gall on Populus
