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Sticker of Waterlily aphid
Bug card No. 4642 of 4,939

Waterlily aphid

Rhopalosiphum nymphaeae
Eats: PlantsTrue bugs and cicadasPonds, rivers and shores6 legs

The waterlily aphid is a tiny soft bug that lives on water lilies in Europe. It looks like a typical aphid, small and round. It sucks juice from the plants, and when there are lots of them the lily leaves suffer.

Lives in
Europe, on water lilies in ponds
Top speed
about 0.01 km/h (0.01 mph)
On foot, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless to people. It can only hurt water lilies.
What does it eat?
It sucks sweet sap from water lily leaves with its tiny beak.
For real!Photo of Waterlily aphid
Picture by Reiner Jakubowski. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

It has six to eight generations in one year, so there can be lots of them by the end of summer.

2

Its eggs spend the winter on bushes, not in the water.

3

When there are very many of them, water lily leaves curl up as they come out of the water and turn pale and dry.

you asked

Most asked questions about Waterlily aphid

?What does the waterlily aphid eat?

It sucks the juice out of water lily leaves.

?Is the waterlily aphid harmful?

Not to people. But lots of them can damage water lilies in a pond.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Rhopalosiphum nymphaeae
Group
True bugs and cicadas
Family
Aphididae
Classification
Insecta > Hemiptera > Aphididae
Lives on
Europe

Where the facts come from

  1. Rhopalosiphum nymphaeae (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by Reiner Jakubowski. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.

If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

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