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Sticker of Cowpea aphid
Bug card No. 1221 of 4,939

Cowpea aphid

Aphis craccivora
Eats: PlantsTrue bugs and cicadasGardens and meadows6 legs

The cowpea aphid is a tiny shiny black or dark brown bug that sucks juice from plants. It loves beans and peas the most. It started out in Europe and Asia, but now it lives almost everywhere on Earth.

Lives in
Almost all over the world, on beans and other plants
Length
2.2 mm (0.09 in)
winged females are up to this long, wingless ones a little smaller
Top speed
about 0.01 km/h (0.01 mph)
On foot, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless to people. It cannot bite or sting you, but farmers do not like it because it hurts their crops.
What does it eat?
It sucks sap from many kinds of plants, especially from beans, peas and their relatives. It likes the soft tips of plants, young leaves and flowers best.
For real!Photo of Cowpea aphid
Picture by David Perez. CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Cowpea aphid about 2.2 mm long (0.09 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)
2.5 of them in a row are as long as one grain of riceneeds 6 minutes to cross a dinner table

How big is Cowpea aphid compared to YOU?

Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.

How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

The mothers can have babies without any fathers. One female can have 25 to 125 babies in her short life of 9 to 25 days.

2

In one year there can be up to twenty generations, one after the other.

3

Ants look after these aphids. The ants drink the sweet juice the aphids make and chase away their enemies.

4

Ladybirds, lacewing larvae and hoverfly larvae all love to eat it.

5

It can carry plant illnesses from one plant to another.

you asked

Most asked questions about Cowpea aphid

?What does the cowpea aphid eat?

It sucks juice from plants, mostly beans, peas, peanuts and their relatives.

?How big is a cowpea aphid?

Tiny. The winged ones are only about 2 mm long.

?Why do ants protect the cowpea aphid?

The aphids make a sweet sticky juice called honeydew, and ants love to drink it.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Aphis craccivora
Group
True bugs and cicadas
Family
Aphididae
Classification
Insecta > Hemiptera > Aphididae
Lives on
Europe, Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Australia and Oceania
Also known as
Groundnut aphid, Black legume aphid

Where the facts come from

  1. Aphis craccivora (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 David Perez. CC BY 3.0, 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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