Aphids (Homoptera: Aphididae) of Nepal

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From the introduction

"Aphids are a group of small homopteran insects which infest aerial and subaerial parts of almost all types of plants. They feed on the phloem sap of plants and as such the plants may show stunted growth, curling of leaves and sometimes also galls or pseudogall formation on the leaves and stems. Indirectly these insects may also damage the host plants by transmitting plant viruses. Sometimes fungus grows on the honey dew excreted by the aphids on the plants. This fungal growth hinders photosynthesis by the leaves of the host plant.

There was no report on the aphid fauna of this region till 1965 when Rana and Sharma reported a few species for the first time. Since then a few stray papers have been published which reported new records and species from the kingdom of Nepal. Through these works and also the present one about 116 species under 64 genera have come to be known so far from this area. Among these Das & Raychaudhuri (1976, 1977) reported 13 species under 13 genera as new records from Nepal and described a new species also. Apart from the already known species from this area 5 new species and 11 new records for Nepal are included in this paper. So a total of 116 species under 64 genera have been considered here. Among these, material of 32 species could he examined by the author. For these species running keys, necessary descriptions, biological notes and distribution have been provided and the rest of the species have just been listed along with the necessary references. The aphid material is at present with the Entomology laboratory, Calcutta University. All the aphid material was collected by the author himself excepting those where the name of collectors have been mentioned.

At the end, the entire work has been summarised focusing on the salient features about the composition of the aphid fauna of Nepal. A catalogue of aphids on economic crops of Nepal has also been given."

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