From the introduction:
"The history of aphid taxonomy in India dates back to 1893 when E. C. Cotes from Sikkim, North east India and G. B. Buckton from some parts of North west India reported a few aphid species. Since then, till now (March 1982) no less than 370 papers have appeared on studies, mostly taxonomic, related to aphids in India. These papers reported more than 700 species of aphids belonging to subfamilies Anoeciinae, Aphidinae, Chaitophorinae, Drepanosiphinae, Greenideinae, Hormaphidinae, Lachninae, Traminae and Pemphiginae under the family Aphididae. Besides, five species have also been reported under family Adelgidae {Ghosh, A. K. 1974 c).
Behura (1963 and 1965) first published a list of aphid species known till then. But his work was more of a compilation-nature, as no effort was made to determine status of wrongly identified species or doubtful records. Ghosh, A. K. (1974 and 1977) presented a list of Aphids of India and adjacent countries, known till -1974. This work provided useful records of aphids based on taxonomic studies carried out by the author and other aphidologists like S. K. David, D. N. Raychaudhuri, and A. N. Basu. Nonetheless, these works covered a variety of opinions as to the taxonomic status of many a aphid species and genera, difference of opinions also existed as regards the use of subfamily names.
In view of the prevailing situation, as discussed above, it was long felt needed to undertake a work of this kind so as to provide the aphidologists in India an up-to-date status report on taxonomy of this important group of homopteran insects.
This work, as such, aims at rectifying many of the taxonomic anomalies that have persisted for a long time in the lndian literature and to present an up-to-date record of aphid species and genera (up till March, 1982), their correct taxonomic status, as far as possible, synonymies, wherever found and incorporate all the available references on aphid studies in Indian region. These references have been placed in numerical order and corresponding numbers appear against each of the aphid species, so as to help the users of this checklist to search the particular reference against any aphid species. Some of the aphid species wrongly reported for another valid species have also been included in this list and such names have been marked with an asterisk at the end of their names.
Some of the doubtfully identified and also incompletely identified aphid species were not available for their re-examination. As such, such names have been included in the check list without any change.
In spite of all the efforts made by the authors, this presentation can not be entirely without any ommission and errors. A few errors located in the late stage of its preparation have already been included under the Errata at the end of this list. However, it is expected that this check list of Indian Aphidoidea will help in the aphidological studies in the country which is being pursued in a number of academic and research Institutes."