The time required for these color changes varies under normal outdoor conditions from about nine days to more than two weeks. Winged adults are black and also possess long cornicles and antennae. Summer generations on plantain look distinctly different from the spring aphids on apple. They are a pale yellowish color, and occur singly or in low numbers, rather than in dense colonies. Plantain leaves are not curled by aphid feeding.
Males are scarce and are only found in the fall.
Antennae of RAA have six segments, whereas antennae of apple grain aphid have five segments. Egg hatch usually begins when buds are at the silver tip stage in spring and continues over a period of about two weeks, concluding by the half-inch green stage. They feed on the outside of the leaf bud and fruit bud clusters until the leaves begin to unfold, and then work their way down inside the clusters and begin sucking sap from the stems and newly formed fruits. One nymph feeding for 24 hours is sufficient to cause the leaf to be curled when it unfolds. The first stem mothers usually reach maturity when apple trees are coming into pink.