Possibly a trivial point, but if anyone is keen to add new species to their county lists, my very cursory research suggests that aphids are a route to travel. There are good ID papers available on the web. And my record of Cinara (Cinara) cuneomaculata is only the fourth entered on iRecord. It’s possible (likely) that there are further records in the various databases but there’s only one on NBN Atlas and 290 on GBIF. Yet larch trees are widespread and it seems highly possible that even a cursory examination of the tips of some of these trees will reveal more brown larch aphids - and quite likely other species, too.
If anyone wants to know more, have a look at Cinara cuneomaculata (brown larch aphid) identification, images, ecology
Time to get stuck into aphids then!
A fair point though. I see aphids, more by accident than design, but have not actually thought of recording them or even looking at them in detail. I enjoyed your link though. Well done on your record.
Interesting about aphids did you know some aphids can get parasitised by a parasitic wasp. I have seen a parasitised Aphid at Frocester Hill before. Identifying parasitised Aphids to species is difficult though. I look out for all Wildlife and not just insects and invertrevretes bugs and beetles or bees and wasps or spiders. spiders are actually under recorded so it’s allways worth looking out for them aswell. So I look out for them too but I also look out for birds, mammels, amphibions and reptiles, sea life, wild plants and other Wildlife aswell and record them too for me. So I also look out for Aphids. I got lots of pictures of Aphids most common ones I come across are the black bean and green ones and the black winged aphids and encounter both winged and wingless. I get them a lot in the garden cause I usually end up with wild plants they like recently iv discovered they really like hellebore and sorrel there’s a whole load of them on the sorrels at the moment. Nasturtium was another favourite that attracted Ants and Aphids and Farming of Aphids. I don’t usually spot them on trees as much as certain shrubs but of course there are some trees that Aphids can be associated with aswell
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there’s quite a lot on parasites at How to find any page on our website
As Kenneth Say the Influential Points site is amazingly valuable.
If you are going down the aphid line it is essential that you record the host plant
Mark
Good point! Although Bob at Influential Points seems to be a genius at IDing aphids, it is far easier if the host plant is known. (I was interested to see that he was active on iSpot some years ago.
See https://www.ispotnature.org/communities/uk-and-ireland/view/observation/174167/p1120375
for example.)
Common lime is notorious for aphids. Some people deprecate its use as a street tree for that reason.
Coincidentally, local social media was full of complaints about that issue last week.
I must have a look!
Look…