Parthenogenesis is reproduction from unfertilised eggs or embryos. Aphids indoors are almost always females that give birth to live nymphs without males (viviparous parthenogenesis); UC IPM notes that most aphids reproduce this way for much of the year. Embryos inside a mother can already contain the next generation, the so-called telescoping of generations.
In practice
Parthenogenesis is why aphids are among the fastest-multiplying cannabis pests: no males to feed, no eggs to hatch, and newborns that start reproducing within about a week in warm rooms. One aphid on a clone is a colony. Sexual forms and overwintering eggs appear only outdoors in autumn in species with a sexual stage.
Don't confuse with
- Arrhenotoky: unmated females make only males (mites, thrips).
- Holocyclic life cycle: includes a yearly sexual generation, usually outdoors.
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.Reproduction in which unmated females lay unfertilised eggs that become males, while mated females make both sexes. Typical of spider mites and thrips.Tetranychus urticae, the commonest cannabis mite indoors: a 0.5 mm sap-feeder that stipples leaves pale and spins webbing, breeding fastest in hot, dry rooms.Slender insects about 1-2 mm long, chiefly western flower thrips (Frankliniella occidentalis), that rasp leaf surfaces, leaving silvery streaks dotted with black frass.Aphid life cycles with (holocyclic) or without (anholocyclic) a yearly sexual generation that lays overwintering eggs.The per-day rate at which an unchecked pest population multiplies under set conditions, from a life table; N(t) = N0 x e^(r_m x t).
