An alate is a winged aphid. Most aphids on a plant are wingless (apterous); winged forms develop when colonies become crowded, when the host plant deteriorates, or seasonally, and they fly or drift on air to found new colonies. UC IPM notes that winged aphids appear when populations are high or plants are stressed.
In practice
Alates on a yellow sticky card are often the first sign of aphids, including root aphids that are otherwise hidden below ground. One alate on a card means a colony somewhere; inspect nearby plants and root balls. Alates arriving through intakes are a reason to screen air inlets.
Don't confuse with
- Apterous aphid: the wingless form.
- Whitefly: also white and winged, but powdery and not an aphid.
Small soft-bodied sap-sucking insects of the family Aphididae that cluster on stems and leaf undersides, excrete sticky honeydew and multiply rapidly by live birth.Integrated pest management: preventing and controlling pests by combining monitoring, prevention, cultural, biological and, as a last resort, chemical tools against set action thresholds.A coloured card coated in non-drying glue that catches flying insects, used mainly to monitor pest trends: yellow for gnats, whiteflies and aphids, blue for thrips.Aphids that colonise roots and the crown below the medium surface, on cannabis chiefly the rice root aphid (Rhopalosiphum rufiabdominale), causing slow, unexplained decline.Small white-winged sap-sucking insects of the family Aleyrodidae, mainly Trialeurodes vaporariorum and Bemisia tabaci, that fly up when disturbed and coat leaves in honeydew.Aphid life cycles with (holocyclic) or without (anholocyclic) a yearly sexual generation that lays overwintering eggs.
