Aphidology

Why I love aphids

The simple answer is because they are awesome. Up until my second year at university I was a committed social insect fan, especially ants and termites. Then Noel Gibson (sadly deceased) gave us a lecture on aphids. Once I learnt about their life cycles I was hooked. More about those will follow in later posts. But to give you a flavour, here are two of my favourite quotes.

In a season the potential descendants of one female aphid contain more substance than 500 million stout men – Thomas Henry Huxley (1858)

In a year aphids could form a layer 149 km deep over the surface of the earth. Thank God for limited resources and natural enemies – Richard Harrington (1994)