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Sunday, June 17, 2007

APHIDZ


It's not a B horror movie, nor is it a mutant bioterror threat. It's just a dense aphid colony on a gaura lindheimeri flower stalk. The aphids are late this year, being mid-June and this the first large aggregation I've seen in my garden. In this photo, you can see some wingless adults, a few immatures, some shed exoskeletons, and many winged adult females. The winged females will fly off to colonize new plant species. The hot weather we've had over the past week has probably accelerated the growth and reproductive rate of this colony explaining its seeming explosive appearance. Not sure which species these are.

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