A synthetic diet for the spirea aphid, Aphis citricola Van der Goot.

Two generations of the spirea aphid were reared successfully on a diet previously used for the green peach aphid, when the sucrose concentration was increased to 24%. Better survival, larviposition and weight gain were obtained when the concentration of five amino acids was also increased. The pea aphid diet was also tested and found unsuitable for this aphid. Synthetic-diet-reared aphids reached a final body weight four times less than that of aphids reared on orange leaves, while their fecundity was about one-third of that recorded for the plant-fed aphids. The possible use of this diet for toxicological and physiological studies is discussed.