Oct 16, 2024
#2560 - Macrosiphum rosae - Rose Aphid
A worldwide pest of rosebushes, although winged adults may transfer to a handful of other hosts.
The aphid usually overwinters as eggs, but populations explode in spring via wingless females that reproduce parthenogenically.
Large populatins can damage the shoots and growing tips of the hostplant, and the honeydew they secrete (see the two droplets on the cornicles of the one below) is a substrate for sooty mould.
St Arnaud, Southern Alps, New Zealand.