Mugwort suckers

Mugwort Aphid (Macrosiphoniella artemisiae)

One of the fun things about this project has been learning just how little I knew about a lot of things before we started. For instance, I had no idea that there were so many species of aphid in the world – almost 600 in the UK alone! Many are extraordinarily hard to identify, though knowing the plant on which they're found can help. But some can be figured out, particularly with the help of awesome websites like the one developed by Influential Points. I found these aphids on a Mugwort plant (Artemesia vulgaris) the other day. They are, predictably enough, Mugwort Aphids (Macrosiphoniella artemisiae). Greenish-grey and covered with a waxy powder, they have black legs, antennae, siphunculi (the two little spikes on their backs) and cauda (the tail-like spike on their back end). Their front femurs (the part of their leg closest to their bodies) are brown; I had to look with a magnifying lens to see that! Their bright red eyes were certainly a surprise. Like all aphids, these are pretty small, measuring only 2-3.5 mm (less than 1/8 of an inch). They're found on a variety of Artemesia species, though we've only found them on Mugwort (so far, anyway) in our garden. Because Mugwort blooms from July through September, that's reputedly the time when the aphid's numbers peak. They're typically found right near the top of the plant, among the flowers. Like all aphids, they excrete "honeydew", but that honeydew doesn't contain melezitose, a sugar that is particularly attractive to ants, so the species isn't ant-tended. The ladybirds will be happy to find them though.