Aphid fauna of the eastern dry zone of Karnataka, India

A total of 34 species of aphids belonging to 23 genera under 7 tribes and 5 subfamilies were recorded infesting 94 host plants that belonged to 34 families. The 5 subfamilies recorded were Aphidinae, Eriosomatinae, Greenideinae, Hormaphidinae and Lachninae. Aphidinae was the predominant subfamily constituting 73% of the total species recorded. The predominant genus of aphid recorded was Aphis (6 species) belonging to subfamily Aphidinae, tribe Aphidini. The aphid, Aulacorthum solani (Kaltenbach) was reported from Karnataka (Bangalore Urban) for the first time, infesting Brugmansia suaveolens (Humb. Bonpl. Ex Willd.) of family Solanaceae. Majority of the host plants of aphids that were recorded belonged to Fabaceae (12 species) followed by Asteraceae (12 species) and Poaceae (10 species). Aphis gossypii Glover (27 host plants belonging to 14 families), Aphis craccivora Koch (14 host plants belonging to 6 families) and Aphis odinae (van der Goot) (10 host plants belonging to 6 families) were found highly polyphagous. Fifteen new host plants were recorded for 9 species of aphids. Majority of the new host plants were recorded for Aphis gossypii (4 new host plant records) and 85% of the total aphid species were recorded from economically important crops.