Plant Manipulation by Gall-Forming Social Aphids for Waste Management

@article{Kutsukake2019PlantMB,
  title={Plant Manipulation by Gall-Forming Social Aphids for Waste Management},
  author={Mayako Kutsukake and Keigo Uematsu and Takema Fukatsu},
  journal={Frontiers in Plant Science},
  year={2019},
  volume={10}
}
Many social aphids form spectacular galls on their host plants, in which hundreds to thousands of aphids thrive for several months or even for over a year. Here, in addition to colony defense against natural enemies, waste disposal is an important task for the gall dwellers to sustain their social life. In open galls, soldier nymphs actively clean colony wastes such as honeydew droplets, cast-off skins, and cadavers by pushing them with their head out of the gall opening. In the gall, the… 
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Observations with a scanning electron microscope revealed that the gall inner surface was densely covered with minute trichomes, which indicates the water repellency of the inner surface, and suggests that young nymphs of C. monstrifica dispose of honeydew globules outside the gall, as known in the congener Colophina clematis.

Defensive nymphs in the water-repellent gall of the social aphid Colophina monstrifica (Hemiptera: Aphididae: Eriosomatinae)

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