Atlas of aphids trapped in agricultural crops

Aphids reduce the yield of agricultural crops primarily by their feeding activity or through the introduction of viruses detrimental to plant health.Preventing losses by aphids usually depends on determining the presence of aphid pest species in the crop and separating them from those aphids only incidentally recovered during monitoring.Over 600 species of aphids have been identified in Canada, and although most are not pests, they can often confuse the identification of pest species found among the aphids retrieved during a monitoring program.This atlas is not meant to be a definitive work on aphids in Canada, but rather a tool to be used by crop protection specialists to help them identify and separate pest species from other species not harmful to agricultural crops, or at least only incidentally present.Species are identified by visually comparing captured aphid specimens with pictures of the whole aphid and with pictures of organs or appendages that are important for identification.It should be noted that only the alate female form was used for this atlas.A total of 60 aphid species are included in the atlas.Most aphids were trapped near London, Ontario, over a period of 7 years.The aphids were captured using yellow pan water traps adjacent to cruciferous crops or Masner traps in a general vegetable-growing area near London.Although these aphids are typical of those likely to be encountered in agricultural areas, the samples likely contain species that are dependent on the surrounding vegetation.The aphids were tentatively identified and were then submitted for final determination to the Biological Resources Division, Centre for Land and