Cabbage Aphid

Cabbage Aphid 

(Brevicoryne brassicae), an insect of the family Aphididae, of the order Homoptera. Adult aphids, which measure approximately 2 mm long, are green with a grayish white waxy film. The females are winged or wingless; the males are winged. Cabbage aphids are widespread. They cause damage to cultivated cruciferous plants, particularly cabbage and rutabaga. In the USSR they are especially harmful in the south. The eggs of the cabbage aphid winter (sometimes the females and larvae as well). In the spring the larvae hatch and develop into wingless fundatrices, which produce parthenogenetically up to 40 larvae. The latter turn into wingless fundatrigeniae, which reproduce similarly until fall, yielding between eight and 20 generations. Initially, cabbage aphids live on cruciferous weeds and on cabbage and rutabaga seeds. In midsummer, in addition to the fundatrigeniae, winged migrantes develop, which fly to cabbage and other cultivated cruciferous plants. The sexual generation appears in autumn; eggs, which will winter, are laid by the fertilized females on cabbage stumps and weeds.

The cabbage aphid, by feeding on plant juices, causes leaf decolorization and curl, arresting the development of the head. Measures taken to control this insect include destroying weeds, tilling after the harvest, using phosphorous and potash fertilizers, treating plants with insecticides, and placing crucifers near the seeds of plants, such as carrot, parsnip, and fennel, which attract beneficial insects. These insects, such as the hover fly, destroy the cabbage aphid.

L. G. TER-SIMONIAN