The natural range of the Beech Blight Aphid is from Maine to Florida. These aphids feed primarily on the sap of American Beech (Fagus grandifolia) trees. Dense colonies of the aphids collect on small branches and on the undersides of the leaves. Another host, depending on geographic location, is the roots of Bald Cypress (Taxodium distichum) trees. Because tree sap is sugary, the aphids’ excrement is also sugary. Known as “honeydew,” it coats the leaves and branches beneath the colonized beech branch. These native aphids are preyed on by other insects and birds, and generally do not cause significant harm to the host tree when kept in check by their natural predators.
Beech Blight aphids have a woolly appearance because they are covered by filamentous, waxy secretions that form fuzzy “pom poms” at the tip of the abdomen. When feeling threatened, the aphids wave their fuzz back and forth rhythmically, earning them the nickname “boogie woogie” aphids.
Their life cycle is complicated. Only wingless females emerge from the eggs in spring. These produce a number of generations during the summer, all wingless females. Winged females develop in the fall and their young form normal males and females, which mate and produce the eggs from which new (all-female) aphids emerge in spring.
Look for the snowy white colonies on branches of American Beech trees in late summer through early fall.
The aphids' copious honeydew excretions provide a substrate on which a sooty mold fungus, Scorias spongiosa, often grows and turns the substrate black. This is an example of a relationship between a tree, an insect, and a fungus. In addition, various ant species are attracted to the honeydew beneath aphid feeding areas on beech trees.
There are 74 records in the project database.
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