Feeding

Feeding

The aphids are phytophagous and have a piercing and sucking system: their mouthparts are adapted for piercing plant walls and penetrating their tissues as far as the phloem vessels and then taking up the sap containing its nutrients.

Ejection of a drop of honeydew 

The aphids utilize their rostrum to pierce the plant then suck up the sap with their stylets. They then eject a sugary liquid, honeydew.
It is largely this feeding habit that explains their characteristic destructiveness.

Acyrthosiphon pisum : vue de face

 

Aphids pierce the plant with their rostrum.

stylets

The stylets reach deep into vessels of the phloem (drawing by N. Sauvion, 1995).

Acyrthosiphon pisum : goutte de miellat

They eject honeydew onto the plant surface.