Lettuce-pest
Guides
Acyrthosiphon lactucae
Prickly Lettuce Aphid
Acyrthosiphon lactucae is an aphid species in the family Aphididae, commonly known as the Prickly Lettuce Aphid. It belongs to the genus Acyrthosiphon, which includes several economically significant agricultural pests. The species was first described by Passerini in 1860. Unlike its congener Acyrthosiphon pisum (the pea aphid), which has been extensively studied, relatively little specific research has been published on A. lactucae. Available records indicate presence in parts of Europe including Norway, Sweden, and the Portuguese archipelago of Madeira.
Hecatera dysodea
Small Ranunculus
Hecatera dysodea, the Small Ranunculus, is a noctuid moth native to Central and Southern Europe, North Africa, and Central Asia. It has been introduced to North America, where it was first detected in Utah in 1998 and Oregon in 2005. The species has experienced local extinction and recolonisation in Britain, where it disappeared by the 1930s and was rediscovered in Kent in 1997. Adults are attracted to light and visit flowers, particularly of lettuce species.
Pemphigus bursarius
lettuce root aphid, poplar gall aphid
Pemphigus bursarius is a host-alternating aphid with a heteroecious life cycle involving Populus species as primary hosts and Asteraceae (particularly lettuce) as secondary hosts. On poplars, it forms flask-shaped leaf-stalk galls in spring; on secondary hosts, it lives subterraneanly feeding on roots. The species exhibits unusual flexibility in its life cycle, with some populations capable of asexual overwintering in soil without returning to the primary host. It is an economically significant pest of lettuce crops and shows genetically distinct host-associated populations.