| Series | Naturalists' Handbooks |
| Author | Graham E Rotheray |
| ISBN | 9781784275167 |
| Publisher | Pelagic Publishing |
| Language | English |
| Pages | 86 |
| Size | 220 x 157 mm |
| Format | Hardcover |
| Images | Few colour images, bl/w drawings |
| Year published | 2024 |
Aphids and their colonies are excellent arenas in which to observe predators in action. A range of insects come to eat or parasitise the aphids or to drink their honeydew.
Aphid predators is a reprint of a handbook, originally published in 1989. Aphid predators includes keys to identify aphid species.
Contents
- Introduction
- Natural History
- Investigating predation
- Identification.
- Guide to aphid species
- Key I Major groups of insects found at aphid colonies
- Key II Hoverflies
- Key III Ladybirds
- Key IV Aphid midges
- Key V Flower bugs
- Key VI Lacewings
- Key VII Ants
- Guide to ground and rove beetles
- Techniques
- Useful addresses
- References and further reading
About the author
As a child, Graham Rotheray was intrigued by flies buzzing around his parents' vegetable garden, especially the hoverflies and their mimicking of wasps in order to evade birds. For his PhD he devised both laboratory and field experiments to investigate parasitic insects that attacked the larval stages of hoverflies. In 1980 he applied his expertise to a study of parasites of a major pest species in the eastern United States, the introduced gypsy moth, in an attempt to devise a biological means of controlling their spread. On returning to Britain, Graham was appointed Curator of Insects at the National Museums of Scotland in Edinburgh. He was charged with developing the collections of Diptera. He developed an interest in ancient Scottish woodlands and the hoverflies that occur there, such as the rare Callicera rufa.
