Turkey Oak Aphid - Myzocallis boerneri

The body length of Myzocallis boerneri alatae is 1.3 to 2.2 mm. For most of the year, immature M. boerneri are very pale yellow, or whiish with paired dusky spinal and marginal spots and many capitate hairs on the dorsum. Adult viviparous alatae of M. boerneri are yellowish, with the head and thorax sometimes partly dusky. The dorsal abdomen has a paired row of dark flat-elliptical spinal spots and variably developed marginal spots. For more details please follow the ‘Further info:’link below.

Please provide good close up images and state the host plant.

The Turkey Oak Aphid lives on the undersides of leaves of several Oak species, especially the Turkey Oak, but also Holm Oak and Sessile Oak, but in Britain is (relatively) host specific on Turkey Oak.  

From late April onwards there is a distinct seasonal pattern of abundance usually with two peaks in abundance in early summer and mid-autumn.

Its life cycle starts when the first-generation hatches from overwintering eggs in late April. These mature to winged viviparous fundatrices which reproduce parthenogenetically leading to a rapid increase in population size.

True status in Britain is difficult to determine due to lack of records.

Rarely recorded in Leicestershire and Rutland.