Insects · Hemiptera · Aphididae

Green Peach Aphid

Myzus persicae

Not Evaluated

It has not yet been assessed against the IUCN criteria. See full glossary

The peach aphid, also known as the green peach aphid or, in Spanish, piojo del melocotonero, is a homopteran of the family Aphididae distributed widely across the whole world, spreading easily whether through human activity or on the wind, and so managing to travel great distances. It is therefore an invasive species. It is a serious pest in fruit growing, both for the direct damage it causes and for its capacity to transmit viruses between plants.

Size

15 cm – 25 cm

Diet

Herbivore

Feeds mainly on plants.

Social structure

Colony

Lives in large concentrations, often for breeding reasons.

Sighting difficulty

Unknown

GrasslandHerbivore Colonial Insect Grassland

7countries1same family

Fun facts

GeneralIt carries over 100 plant viruses: one of the costliest agricultural pests there is.
It is probably the insect with the most documented insecticide resistance mechanisms: it has developed resistance to almost every chemical family used against it, sometimes stacking several at once.
Its colonies are clones: a single female can give rise in one season to millions of genetically identical descendants.
It feeds on more than 400 plant species from forty different families, an extraordinary range for an aphid.
The greater damage is not the feeding but what it carries: it is a vector of more than a hundred plant viruses, affecting potato, beet, lettuce, cauliflower, turnip, cucumber and watermelon, among others.
It has developed resistance to more than seventy insecticides from widely differing chemical groups: carbamates, neonicotinoids, organophosphates and pyrethroids.
Glasshouses act as a reservoir: when infested plants are moved out into the field, they carry not only aphids but resistance as well.
Wind and storms carry it long distances.