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
stylets
Acyrthosiphon pisum : goutte de miellat

Aphids pierce the
plant with their rostrum

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

They eject honeydew
onto the plant surface.

Modification date : 07 February 2023 | Publication date : 06 December 2010 | Redactor : Evelyne Turpeau, Maurice Hullé, Bernard Chaubet