Although tiny, aphids, often called plant lice, cast a large shadow in Ontario fields of flue-cured tobacco. Aphids possess piercing, sucking mouth parts which they effectively employ to suck the sap from leaves and stems of plants. Aphid-feeding candirectly cause curling or wilting of the host plant. More importantly, aphids serve as important vectors of a number of plant diseases. Although observed on flue-cured tobacco in Ontario for many years, it was only about 20 years ago that aphids became relatively serious pests of the crop. At that time the most common aphid observed on tobacco was green in color and was identified as the green peach aphid, Myzus persicae. The green peach aphid is widely distributed internationally, has a tremendous hostrange and is able to transmit over 100 virus diseases of plants.
展开▼
