280 days of Urbpandemonium #171

[urbpan]

Charlie and I were at Turtle Pond. I noticed a water lily leaf decorated with specks, like someone had shaken pepper over it. "Oh boy! I can get some springtails into my project," I thought. But when I got the leaf close enough to examine, the specks didn't move--springtails would have jumped all over the place.


The specks turned out to be water lily aphids Rhopalosiphum nymphaeae* which are slow and flightless. They start out living on plants in the Prunus group (cherries and plums) in the spring. Then some of the population is born with wings--these fly to water plants and live out the summer there. Later they migrate back to the fruit trees, where the eggs will overwinter.

*Club-tubed water-lily eater.