Check List of Aphids Recorded from Ethiopia (Homoptera:Aphididae)

Abstract

Until recently aphids have not been of great importance as crop pests in Ethiopia, The exceptions were the Cotton Aphid (Aphis gossypii Glover) which frequently needs chemical control and the Cabbage Aghid (Brevicoryne brassicae (Linnaeus)) which is damaging to cabbages in certain seasons. Recently, however, other apecies have cone into prominence, notably the Russian Wheat Aphid (Diuraphis noxius Mordvillco) and the Maize Aphid (Rhopalosiphum maidis Pitch ) on barley and the various virus vectors on pepper, citrus and other horticultural crops, Efforts are being made, therefore, to build an expertly identified local collection of aphids so that speciments can be determined in Ethiopia and not sent every time to foreign museums. As part of thift exercise a list of species recorded from Ethiopia has been compiled from the literature and from ficlfli collections and is given below. The names have been corrected in accordance with the recent book of Eastop & Hilie Ris Lambers (1976) but the f$rm in which they were originally cited is also given.

The sources of information are: 1. The collections in Eritrea "by De Lotto & Nastasi (1955) an<3- De Lotto (1947, 1948, 1949, 1950). 2# The collections made in eastern Harer Province by Hill (1966), 3, The collections made by Schmutterer (l97l) in eastern Welega and western Harer Provinces# 4* The collections made by US Regional Insect Control Project (Gentiy, 1965)* 5* The collections made by the IRAT Agronomists at Awasa, This collection is now at the Holotta Station of IAR, unmounted, in vials. There is no record of where, or by whom it was determined. Dr. Eastop Kindly confirmed the determinations of Nos, 3, 40, 48 and 55, 6, The colletiono of IAR Entomologists from 1968 to 1981 inclusive. These were determined by the Commonwealth Institute of Entomology and the CIE List number is quoted. 7- Eastop's study of East African aphids (Eastop, 195$) The first editions of this list, dated May 1979» was submitted to Dr, V,F, Eastop of the British Museum (Natural History). On his advice we have delated species from the original list because they were almost certainly mi si dent if ied and we have added <Jno species that had been overlooked. In October 1979 and in February 1981 a further collection of aphids was determined for us by CIE, Three new species records from this collection are also incorporated into this revised list.