The nutritional quality of phloem sap utilized by natural aphid populations

Abstract

Abstract. The amino acid content of phloem exudates from leaves and of aphid honeydew were adopted as indices of the nutritional quality of phloem sap for aphids. Four plant species and associated leaf‐dwelling aphids were investigated: the sycamore Acer pseudoplanatus and sycamore aphid Drepanosiphum platanoides; Prunus domestica (victoria plum) and the mealy plum aphid Hyalopterus pruni ; and the spindle tree Euonymus europaeus and broad‐bean Vicia faba , both hosts of the black bean aphid Aphis fabae. The concentration of amino acids in the phloem exudates varied with: (a) plant species (greater in the herb Vicia than in the tree species), (b) season (greater in the autumn than summer for Acer and Euonymus ), and (c) position (greater in flush leaves than mature leaves of Prunus ). For Acer and Prunus and their aphids, the concentration of amino acids in phloem exudates was significantly correlated with the amino acid content of the aphid honeydew. The amino acids in all exudates and honeydew were dominated by non‐essential amino acids (glutamic acid, glutamine, asparagine or serine, varying with season and between plant species). The sole major discrepancy between the amino acid profiles of exudates and honeydew was the production of asparagine‐rich honeydew by aphids feeding on leaves, whose exudates were dominated by glutamic acid; this applied to both H.pruni on mature Prunus leaves and Drepanosiphum platanoides on summer‐leaves of Acer. It is suggested that EDTA‐exudation may be a useful technique to study nutritional correlates of aphid life cycles, e.g. the time of migration between primary and secondary plant hosts.