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Aphids usually feed passively on sap of phloem vessels in plants, as do many of other hemipterans such as scale insects and cicadas. Once a phloem vessel is punctured, the sap, which is under pressure, is forced into the aphid's food canal.
Honeydew is a sugar-rich sticky liquid, secreted by aphids, some scale insects, and many other true bugs and some other insects as they feed on plant sap.
1 gru 2008 · Aphids are economically important insect pests of agriculture and forest crops. They feed on phloem sap by extremely efficient mouthparts modified into long and flexible stylets.
Most plants can be fed on by sap sucking greenfly, blackfly or other aphids. Aphids however, are food for many predatory insects and part of a balanced garden ecosystem. Some of these predators can be purchased as biological controls for aphids on greenhouse plants.
Insects from the families Aphidiinae (not to be confused with the aphid subfamily Aphidinae) and Aphelinus are parasites that specialize on aphids. Both of these groups inject an egg into the body of an aphid. The egg then hatches and the larva feeds upon the aphid's body from the inside out.
Aphids are sap-sucking insects, they have many predators and are the basis for many food chains. The sap sucking can cause a lack of plant vigour, distorted growth and often excrete a sticky substance (honeydew) on which sooty moulds can grow. Some aphids transmit plant viruses.
Minute pirate bugs (Anthocoridae) – the tiny, distinctively patterned black and white adults and the pinkish-yellow to light brown nymphs and adults are very active and will feed on small aphids. Parasitic wasps (Braconidae, Aphelinidae) – most of these wasps have similar developmental processes.
