UPDATED CHECKLIST OF HOST PLANTS OF CALAPHIDINAE (APHIDIDAE : HEMIPTERA) IN INDIA

Abstract

Background: The aphids (Aphididae: Hemiptera) are plant sap sucking insects and are major pests of crops, vegetables and fruit trees. Earlier food plant catalogue of Indian aphids dates back almost four decades. The researches on aphid taxonomy as well as their host plants is continued with the description of new taxa, the modified status of others, and the publication of other nomenclatural decisions. The family Aphididae consists of 24 subfamilies and their (subfamilywise) food plant catalogue is being initiated by us. It is the 6th in series of cataloguing the aphids belonging to subfamily Calaphidinae. The work will help to solve some needs pertaining to studies on Indian aphids, such as synonymic handling and their food plant checklist, as well as the lack of a complete and up-todate listing of the species.

Materials & Methods: In preparing of this checklist, recent world literatures (published up to January, 2017) were scrutinized for synonymy of the species of aphids as well as their host plants along with the information available at websites: http://Aphid.SpeciesFile.org (version 5.0/5.0) for aphids, and http://www.ars-grin.gov and http://www.theplantlist.org (version 1.1) for plants accessed on January, 2017.   

Results: The aphids are a group of over 5000 species of plant sap sucking insects distributed throughout the world, from the rainforest to the desert ground. Currently, the family Aphididae comprises 24 subfamilies, out of which the food plant catalogue of Indian  aphids belonging to subfamily Calaphidinae is provided in this compilation.

Calaphidinae consists of 2 tribes: Calaphini and Panaphidini and each tribe consists of 2 subtribes: Calaphidina and Monophidina (Calaphidini), and Myzocallidina and Panaphidina (Panaphidini). In India, Calaphidina is represented by 5 genera and 14 species, while no species of Monaphidina was reported so far. Myzocallidina is represented by only 4 genera and 9 species, while Panaphidina is more diversed containing 16 genera and 25 species. All these 48 species feed on 62 plant species belonging mainly to Betulaceae, Fagaceae, Rosaceae, Juglandaceae, Fabaceae, Poaceae, and Ulmaceae.

Conclusion: All members of Calaphidinae are monoecious, oligophagous and mostly associated with trees of Betulaceae (17 aphid species), Fagaceae (13 aphid species), Ulmaceae (2 aphid species), Anacardiaceae (4 aphid species), and Juglandaceae (6 aphid species) and herbaceous plants like Fabaceae (6 aphid species), Poaceae (8 aphid species) and Rosaceae (11 aphid species). Monoecious habit is considered a primitive character in this group and host plant alternation has apparently never or less evolved. The group is distributed mostly from east to west Himalayas. 

Keywords: Aphids, Callaphidinae, Panaphidini, Myzocallidina, food plant catalogue, checklist.