Adelgidae

Adelgidae
Adelgidae
Hemlock woolly adelgid
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Homoptera
Suborder: Sternorrhyncha
Superfamily: Phylloxeroidea
Family: Adelgidae
Genera

See text

The Adelgidae is a small family of the Homoptera closely related to the aphids, and often traditionally included in the Aphidoidea with the Phylloxeridae. Adelgids are often known as "woolly conifer aphids". The family is composed of species associated with pine spruce or other conifers, known respectively as "pine aphids" or "spruce aphids". This family includes the former family Chermesidae, or "Chermidae", the name of which was declared invalid by the ICZN in 1955.[1] There is still considerable debate as to the number of genera within the family, and the classification is still unstable and inconsistent among competing authors.[2]

There are about fifty species of adelgids known. All of them are native to the northern hemisphere, although some have been introduced to the southern hemisphere as invasive species.[3][4] Unlike aphids, the adelgids have no tail-like cauda and no cornicles.[5]

Adelgids only lay eggs, and never give birth to live nymphs as aphids do. Adelgids are covered with dense woolly wax. A complete adelgid life cycle lasts two years.[5] Adelgid nymphs are known as sistentes, and the overwintering sistentes are called neosistens.[6]

Rain can kill adelgids by dislodging eggs and sistentes from trees.[7]

Balsam woolly adelgid

Genera

  • Adelges
  • Aphrastasia
  • Cholodkovskya
  • Dreyfusia
  • Eopineus
  • Gilletteella
  • Pineus
  • Sacchiphantes
  • Viteus

See also

  • Pineapple gall adelgid

References

  1. ^ insects being called "chermes" sometimes. Another name that was common was "dreyfusia" in other locations (The Balsam Woolly Aphid Problem in Oregon and Washington, Norman E. Johnson and Kenneth H. Wright, Research paper No. 18, United States Forest Service, United States Department of Agriculture, April, 1957).
  2. ^ A Historical Review of Adelgid Nomenclature, Matthew S. Wallace, Third Symposium on Woolly Hemlock Adelgids
  3. ^ "Hemlock Woolly Adelgid". Gallery of Pests. Don't Move Firewood. http://dontmovefirewood.org/gallery-of-pests/hemlock-woolly-adelgid.html. Retrieved 20 October 2011. 
  4. ^ "Balsam Woolly Adelgid". Gallery of Pests. Don't Move Firewood. http://dontmovefirewood.org/gallery-of-pests/balsam-woolly-adelgid.html. Retrieved 20 October 2011. 
  5. ^ a b Bugs of the World, George C. McGumo, Facts on File, 1993, ISBN 0-8160-2737-4
  6. ^ page 724 of Imms' General Textbook of Entomology, Tenth Edition, volume 2, Augustus Daniel Imms, Richard Gareth Davies, Owain Westmacott Richards, Springer, 1977, ISBN 0-412-15220-7
  7. ^ The Balsam Woolly Aphid Problem in Oregon and Washington, Norman E. Johnson and Kenneth H. Wright, Research paper No. 18, United States Forest Service, United States Department of Agriculture, April, 1957
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