{"id":316,"date":"2015-04-21T02:23:51","date_gmt":"2015-04-21T02:23:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aphidtrek.org\/?page_id=316"},"modified":"2024-12-27T23:27:09","modified_gmt":"2024-12-27T23:27:09","slug":"acyrthosiphon","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/aphidtrek.org\/?page_id=316","title":{"rendered":"Acyrthosiphon"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Acyrthosiphon<\/em> Mordvilko<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This page updated: December 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is one of those aphid genera that seems likely to be a mish mash of species that is probably polyphyletic.  Most of the species are Palaearctic, and a few of those have been introduced to North America.<\/p>\n\n\n

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An Acyrthosiphon ovipara, straying onto raspberry. It’s probably A. pisum.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

In general appearance, this genus is mostly just like Macrosiphum<\/em> except without the apical reticulation on the siphunculi (except wait a minute, some species placed in Macrosiphum<\/em> usually have no real reticulation either…).  Almost certainly some of the species currently placed in Acyrthosiphon<\/em> are more closely related to species of other genera, and in a natural classification should be placed together with those closely related species.  Examples that I know of include A. purshiae<\/em> and A. macrosiphon <\/em>(see below).  I also know of a couple undescribed species that may be most closely related to described species of Illinoia<\/em>, but due to their reduced siphuncular reticulation and swelling, would probably be slotted into Acyrthosiphon<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the other hand, I know of an undescribed species that feeds on the sand dune-specialist legume Psoralidium lanceolatum<\/em>.  This aphid is almost certainly closely related to other legume-feeding species of the genus (e.g. A. pisum, A. caraganae<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n

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Acyrthosiphon, probably an undescribed species, on Psoralidium lanceolatum.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

In 2022 I collected two additional species in the Magdalena Mountains of New Mexico that may be Acyrthosiphon<\/em> and are probably not previously known. One was a beautiful shiny apple green and lives on Philadelphus microphyllus<\/em> (Hydrangeaceae). I have material from the South Canyon area both near the base and not far from mountain peaks. In 2024 I was able to collect the oviparae and alate males as well. Just down the road from my higher elevation site for this aphid was another oddity — a large spindly aphid on Holodiscus<\/em> that I thought at the time would turn out to be Macrosiphum holodisci<\/a><\/em>, but instead looked like a bizarre mix of characters from that species and Acyrthosiphon rockspirea<\/a><\/em>. Wouldn’t it be wild if these specimens really did have a hybrid origin? I had collected the latter form one other time in a different mountain range east of Albuquerque.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Species covered below (click on the name to jump to that species):<\/h2>\n\n\n\n