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Sticker of Manzanita leafgall aphid
Bug card No. 2741 of 4,939

Manzanita leafgall aphid

Tamalia coweni
Eats: PlantsTrue bugs and cicadasGardens and meadows6 legs

The manzanita leafgall aphid is a tiny bug that lives on manzanita bushes. It makes the plant grow a swelling, called a gall, around it. The gall is like a little house made of leaf.

Lives in
The Pacific coast of North America, east to Nevada and Colorado
Top speed
about 0.01 km/h (0.01 mph)
On foot, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It is a tiny plant juice drinker.
What does it eat?
Like all aphids, it drinks the juice inside plants, from manzanita bushes.
For real!Photo of Manzanita leafgall aphid
Picture by John Rusk from Berkeley, CA, United States of America. CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

It makes two kinds of galls: one on the middle or edge of a leaf, and a rarer one on the flowers.

2

Another aphid sometimes moves into its galls and lives there too.

3

It is common on the Pacific coast of North America.

you asked

Most asked questions about Manzanita leafgall aphid

?What is a gall?

A gall is a swelling that a plant grows around a small creature. The aphid lives safe inside it.

?Where does the manzanita leafgall aphid live?

On manzanita bushes along the Pacific coast of North America, east to Nevada and Colorado.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Tamalia coweni
Group
True bugs and cicadas
Family
Aphididae
Classification
Insecta > Hemiptera > Aphididae
Lives on
North America
Also known as
Fold-gall aphid

Where the facts come from

  1. Tamalia coweni (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 John Rusk from Berkeley, CA, United States of America. CC BY 2.0, 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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