Iziphya Nevsky

This is a really charismatic group of aphids that specialize on sedges (e.g. Carex).  There are species native to both Nearctic and Palearctic.  I had the honor of collecting material for F.W. Quednau while he was working on a revision of the group (published in 2010), and consequently several of the slides in my collection were identified by him.  I remember him nagging me gently to get species identifications on the Carex hosts I collected from, and me having tell him that I had no training in Carex, and that being so far from a university and a plant taxonomist precluded better Carex taxonomy.  He seemed to grudgingly accept my excuse. Quednau was an old-fashioned taxonomist who actually returned the material he borrowed (a rare behavior nowadays) and when loaned material arrived back home it had his notes and determinations (i.e., just the way it is supposed to be done).

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Iziphya spenceri Richards

This is one of the common species of Iziphya that I collect.  It lives on sedges on dry slopes in the forests all along the western U.S. that I frequent, and it apparently is known from many other parts of the world in this kind of habitat. I have material from Washington, Oregon, and New Mexico.