Talk:Aphid

Ants farm aphids....

I had no idea. Very interesting. Shit like this is why I read Wikipedia every day. Eric Cable  !  Talk  12:05, 11 May 2018 (UTC)

Role in the potato famine

@Chiswick Chap: This had been in the article for 10 years citing this book that was published alongside a Discovery Channel show. I can't conclusively demonstrate it is incorrect, but aphids are most certainly not an important vector for blight - the wind takes care of that perfectly well. I can only presume that the author was confusing blight with potato curl which occurred in a similar era and was spread by aphids. SmartSE (talk) 23:06, 15 August 2018 (UTC)

I'd tend to concur about the confusion of one disease with another; I hadn't noticed the bit about blight in this article before, it does not seem legitimate. Dyanega (talk) 23:33, 15 August 2018 (UTC)

Agree. This also shows why more eyes are needed at GA reviews. Would also not consider Animal Planet/Discovery Channel as a reliable source. Shyamal (talk) 01:14, 16 August 2018 (UTC)

Fair enough. Chiswick Chap (talk) 05:44, 16 August 2018 (UTC)

Equatorial zone reproduction?

In the section on reproduction we get a thorough explanation of how aphids cope with seasonality; they breed asexually all summer, then have a sexual generation in autumn, with the eggs overwintering. What happens near the equator, where there is no pronounced seasonality? Do they continue asexually forever? Is there a cue that causes a sexual generation? We need an expert to write a little bit more here. Dean1954 (talk) 10:46, 6 September 2020 (UTC)

Thelaxidae, missing family?

we have one red link to Thelaxidae. Validity of this name. Possible genuses are: Glyphina and Thelaxes, IRMNG also gives a fossil one: Gondvanoaphis Wegierek & Grimaldi, 2010--Estopedist1 (talk) 18:51, 30 June 2021 (UTC)

Where do you see this red link? There is no such link on the Aphid page. Dyanega (talk) 21:16, 30 June 2021 (UTC)

Taxobox directly contradicts the very first sentence of the article.

The first sentence of the article defines aphids as "insects of the family Aphididae". The taxobox defines aphids as "insects of the superfamily Aphidoidea". Aphidoidea includes extinct families, and Aphididae does not. Therefore they refer to nonidentical sets, and these statements cannot both be true. ~2026-11614-51 (talk) 02:59, 19 April 2026 (UTC)

Thanks for discussing. Taxoboxes convey taxonomic detail. Lead text, especially the first paragraph, and a fortiori the first sentence, give a simple overview of the topic, meant to be read by school pupils and non-technical people. It is not possible nor appropriate to try to cover all exceptions, complications, or qualifications in such a simple summary. Technical experts will see as you have done that such exceptions exist. Taxoboxes and Taxonomy sections can go into that detail; thectop of the lead is not the place for it. Chiswick Chap (talk) 04:27, 19 April 2026 (UTC)