Schizaphis Börner

This is a genus of a few dozen small aphids that specialize on monocots, especially grasses (Poaceae) and sedges and relatives (Cyperaceae). I have no photos of the genus, in part because I don’t like collecting on grasses and similar enough to gather live specimens and tend them until getting to my photography microscope.

I am finally writing something about this genus here in spring of 2024 because a few months back I sat down and studied the material I had identified as Schizaphis plus the specimens from grasses and sedges (often mixed together) I’d tentatively filed as Rhopalosiphum cerasifoliae. It turns out that the latter set of specimens was a mixture of R. cerasifoliae and at least two species of Schizaphis. Given the generally poor knowledge of species-level taxonomy and biology of Schizaphis amd the diversity of the genus in North America, plus my almost complete lack of identified material, I cannot say what species of Schizaphis I have in my collection. They are easily and commonly found in wet grassy and sedgy meadows and wetlands.