BULLETIN 242. 



PINK AND GREEN APHID OF POTATO.* 



(Macrosiphiim solamfolii Ashmead). 



Edith M. Patch. 



The need for the study of the habits and life cycles of aphids, 

 before a satisfactory basis can be obtained for remedial recom- 

 mendations, is apparent to anyone familiar with the complexities 

 of such a problem. 



Those species that accept but one food plant, depositing their 

 winter eggs upon it and passing their whole life cycle there, 

 usually present no difficulties greater than those of other insect 

 pests and are even easier to combat than many. 



But those aphids that select one kind of plant upon which to 

 pass the fall, winter and spring and a different kind for the 

 summer generations, frequently so change their manner of life 

 to suit the two environments that it behooves us to look sharply 

 lest we miss a link here or there in their life cycles, but even 

 here we need reckon with only two plants. 



When, however, in addition to two favorite food plants, a 

 species of aphid will accept others not botanically related, the 

 problem is complicated by a new element for every different 

 food plant. 



This latter condition is the case with the pink and green 

 aphid of potato. When work with this species was first under- 

 taken at the Maine Agricultural Experiment Station, the only 

 food plants recorded for it were two plants belonging to the 

 night-shade family, — the "pepper vine" and the potato. A glance 

 at the food plant list in this bulletin will show that the insect 

 concerned has really a broad taste in botanical juices and will 

 imbibe freely of the sap from numerous sources, each of which 

 deserves consideration in economic work with this aphid. 



*Papers from the Maine Agricultural Experiment Station Entomology 

 No. 8i. 



