Myzus

Stekolshchikov, Andrey V. & Khruleva, Olga A., 2014, A contribution to the aphid fauna (Hemiptera: Aphididae) of Wrangel Island, Zootaxa 3887 (3), pp. 298-320 : 313

Myzus sp.

Material. 1 fund., No. 10165, Somnitel’naya Bay, patchy lichen-grass-moss tundra on the Southern Plain, 16.vii–14.viii.2006, pitfall traps; 1 al., No. 10166, Somnitel’nye Mountains, wet depression with sedge-moss vegetation at the base of a hill, 14.viii.2006, sweeping.

Comments. Only two specimens, a fundatrix and an alate vivparous female, were collected on Wrangel Island. The specific marker of the genus Myzus is the deep frontal sinus with inner faces of antennal tubercles convergent. Since fundatrices and alate viviparous females have a less-pronounced (sometimes, almost unapparent) frontal sinus than apterous viviparous females, the classification of these individuals to the genus Myzus needs additional verification. Both specimens have a 5-segmented antenna and a relatively short processus terminalis—the ratio between the length of processus terminalis to the length of the base of the last antennal segment is 1.30–1.36 in the fundatrix, and 1.69–1.87 in the alate vivparous female. Both specimens have deformities: the fundatrix has underdeveloped second segments on both antennae, and the alate vivparous female has underdeveloped wings. The five-segmented antenna and the short processus terminalis may also be deformities, and these specimens may be the thus-far-unknown fundatrix and alata of Myzus polaris with which the studied specimens have some similar features. Future research can give a more detailed answer to this question.