page_title: Aphid
section_title: Evolution
hierarchical_section_title: Aphid / Evolution
caption_attribution_description: English: Baltic amber inclusions - 40-50 million years old - Aphid (Hemiptera, Sternorrhyncha, Aphidoidea, Aphid, ...?) - About 1,45 mm long. Is there anyone who knows this species&#160;?
context_page_description: Aphids are small sap-sucking insects and members of the superfamily Aphidoidea. Common names include greenfly and blackfly, although individuals within a species can vary widely in colour. The group includes the fluffy white woolly aphids. A typical life cycle involves flightless females giving living birth to female nymphs—who may also be already pregnant, an adaptation scientists call telescopic development—without the involvement of males. Maturing rapidly, females breed profusely so that the number of these insects multiplies quickly. Winged females may develop later in the season, allowing the insects to colonise new plants. In temperate regions, a phase of sexual reproduction occurs in the autumn, with the insects often overwintering as eggs.
  The life cycle of some species involves an alternation between two species of host plants, for example between an annual crop and a woody plant. Some species feed on only one type of plant, while others are generalists, colonising many plant groups. About 5,000 species of aphid have been described, all included in the family Aphididae.
caption: An aphid fossilised in Baltic amber (Eocene)
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