The black bean aphid (Aphis fabae) is a widely spread pest. The primary food plants are the spindle tree (Eonymus), the jusmine (Jusminum) and the arrowwood (Viburnum). The postprimary (secondary) are various ornamental, industrial and other agricultural crops, and a lot of wild plants.

Biology and life cycle

The stem mother or the progenitress has a wide-oval, mat, black body. The abdomen is covered with a faint waxen coating. The antennae are five-segmented. The third and the forth segments are yellow, others are yellow-brown (sometimes brown-black). The fore femurs and all the tibiae (shanks) are yellow. The middle and the hind femurs, the tips of tibia and the tarsi (paws) are brown-black. The cornicules (tubules) are cylindrical, black.

The wingless virgin female is known as an apterous. The apterous is egg-shaped, dark-brown, black, green or mat. The antennae are six-segmented. They reach 2/3 of body length. The cornicules, the caudicle (tail), the tarsi are black-brown. The proboscis (sucker) reaches the coxae of middle legs.

The winged virgin female is known as an alate. It has an oval-oblong body. Its head and thorax are nitidous, black. The antennae are black. They are a little shorter than the body. The abdomen is mat, dark-green-black. The fore femurs and all the tibiae are yellow.

The amphigonium female differs from wingless individuals by the larger dusting of a body and the black color of antennae. The cornicules are cylindrical, dark-brown. There is a reddish pigmentation between and around them. The hind tibiae are black, ventricose. The caudicle is conical. The end of the body is slightly oblong.

The mail is winged. He has a more thin body than the female has. The mail is nitidous, coaly-black. The eyes are developed very much. The legs and the antennae are long.

Mode of life

Life cycle is gonochoristic. The eggs overwinter at the bud bases of shoots. In the spring the born larvae of a progenitress overpass on shoots, stalks and leaves. In the second and the third generations winged migrants arise. They overfly on the secondary host-plants. Here 10 generations of wingless and winged female-settlers develop. They found new colonies on young plants. The optimal conditions for flights are a temperature of 23–30°C and a relative air humidity of 40–80%. In September the winged sexuparae emerge then the males do. They remigrate on the primary host-plants where the females lay eggs at the bases of buds.

Symptoms of injures

The harmfulness of the species is very large. The aphid causes considerable leaf blight, the twisting of stalks and shoots, their growth stopping and even drying up. The decorativeness and the commercial properties of production decrease because of the great quantity of sugary excretions contaminating plants. The pest transfers virus diseases.