Pterocomma salicis (Linné,1758)

Morphological characteristics

3.2-4.5 mm.
Large dark aphid with spots of whitish wax.
Apterous: dark with legs and antenna orange, cornicles swollen, orange to bright red, antenna shorter than half the length of the body.
Alate: like apterous with wing veins dark.

See identification file

Life cycles

Monoecious holocyclic.

Plantes hôtes

Salix spp: especially Salix viminalis (osier)

Particular characteristics

Pterocomma salicis forms really dense, compact colonies on different species of willow. It colonizes young stems where it is visited by ants. In autumn, after mating by the ovipara (sexual female) and the apterous male, the eggs are laid in cracks of willow bark. In the following spring new colonies form after egg hatching.

Agronomic impact

The damage caused can be serious for osiers grown for basket weaving. Pterocomma salicis brings stunting of stems and the death of new shoots.