{"id":1104,"date":"2016-06-27T03:03:40","date_gmt":"2016-06-27T03:03:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aphidtrek.org\/?page_id=1104"},"modified":"2024-12-17T21:46:06","modified_gmt":"2024-12-17T21:46:06","slug":"pterocomma","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/aphidtrek.org\/?page_id=1104","title":{"rendered":"Pterocomma"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong><em>Pterocomma<\/em> Buckton<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is a genus of about 30 species that live on Salicaceae in the northern hemisphere.\u00a0 Aphids in this genus are among the largest aphids, and often live on the stems and branches of their tree and shrub hosts.\u00a0 They are often attended by ants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>Pterocomma bicolor<\/em> (Oestlund)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In western North America, this is by far the most common species of <em>Pterocomma<\/em>.&nbsp; It is easily recognized in the field, and so I often walk past it rather than collect it (possibly a mistake, as mentioned elsewhere).&nbsp; Although the dogma is that this species is monoecious with males and oviparae in fall, I have never seen sexuales myself, and frustratingly, the first life stages I almost always find in the field are alate viviparae colonizing willows in the forest during bud break.&nbsp; So, these alatae are landing on willows just breaking dormancy, yet where did they come from?&nbsp; An obvious answer is that they are coming from lower elevations where spring came earlier, and this is likely the case.&nbsp; Such early season migration shows that although the accepted idea is that <em>Pterocomma<\/em> is monoecious, and that monoecious is usually equated with non-migratory, this aphid embarks on daring early-season migration from low-lands to mountains.&nbsp; Some day I may write about the truth of aphid migration as I see it from decades of field work in natural systems.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/aphidtrek.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Pterocomma-bicolor-Douglas-Can-23-iv-2011-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"552\" height=\"459\" src=\"https:\/\/aphidtrek.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Pterocomma-bicolor-Douglas-Can-23-iv-2011-1.jpg\" alt=\"Pterocomma bicolor, probably a fundatrix, from Douglas Canyon in central Washington in April.\" class=\"wp-image-1105\" srcset=\"https:\/\/aphidtrek.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Pterocomma-bicolor-Douglas-Can-23-iv-2011-1.jpg 552w, https:\/\/aphidtrek.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Pterocomma-bicolor-Douglas-Can-23-iv-2011-1-300x249.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 552px) 100vw, 552px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Pterocomma bicolor, probably a fundatrix, from Douglas Canyon in central Washington in April.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/aphidtrek.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Pterocomma-bicolor-Salix-Emigrant-Spr-2-v-2012.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"567\" src=\"https:\/\/aphidtrek.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Pterocomma-bicolor-Salix-Emigrant-Spr-2-v-2012-1024x567.jpg\" alt=\"Pterocomma bicolor alate vivipara, having just arrived in the Blue Mountains from points unknown, colonizing Salix during bud break in early May.\" class=\"wp-image-1106\" srcset=\"https:\/\/aphidtrek.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Pterocomma-bicolor-Salix-Emigrant-Spr-2-v-2012-1024x567.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/aphidtrek.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Pterocomma-bicolor-Salix-Emigrant-Spr-2-v-2012-300x166.jpg 300w, https:\/\/aphidtrek.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Pterocomma-bicolor-Salix-Emigrant-Spr-2-v-2012-768x426.jpg 768w, https:\/\/aphidtrek.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Pterocomma-bicolor-Salix-Emigrant-Spr-2-v-2012.jpg 1440w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Pterocomma bicolor alate vivipara, having just arrived in the Blue Mountains from points unknown, colonizing Salix during bud break in early May.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pterocomma Buckton This is a genus of about 30 species that live on Salicaceae in the northern hemisphere.\u00a0 Aphids in this genus are among the largest aphids, and often live on the stems and branches of their tree and shrub hosts.\u00a0 They are often attended by ants. Pterocomma bicolor (Oestlund) In western North America, this [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":741,"menu_order":20,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1104","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aphidtrek.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aphidtrek.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aphidtrek.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aphidtrek.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aphidtrek.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1104"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/aphidtrek.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2253,"href":"https:\/\/aphidtrek.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1104\/revisions\/2253"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aphidtrek.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aphidtrek.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}