Mordwilkoja

Mordwilkoja
Mordwilkoja gall on Populus deltoides
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Clade: Pancrustacea
Class: Insecta
Order: Hemiptera
Suborder: Sternorrhyncha
Family: Aphididae
Subfamily: Pemphiginae
Tribe: Pemphigini
Genus: Mordwilkoja
Del Guercio, 1909
Species:
M. vagabunda
Binomial name
Mordwilkoja vagabunda
(Walsh, 1863)
Synonyms
  • Byrsocrypta vagabunda Walsh, 1863
  • Parathecabius stammeri Zwölfer, 1957
  • Pemphigus oestlundi Cockerell, 1906
  • Pemphigus vagabondus (Walsh, 1863)

Mordwilkoja vagabunda, the poplar vagabond aphid, is a species of gall-forming aphid found in eastern North America. It is the only species in the monotypic genus Mordwilkoja, named after Russian entomologist Alexander Mordvilko.

Taxonomy

Mordwilkoja vagabunda was first scientifically described in a December 1862 paper by Benjamin Dann Walsh under the name Byrsocrypta vagabunda. Walsh's paper, on the aphids of the United States, appeared in the first volume of the Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Philadelphia, printed in 1863. He provided a physical description based on eleven specimens which he collected near Rock Island, Illinois. He gave it the specific name vagabunda on the basis of its "habit ... of wandering to very great distances in its native forests", knowing "nothing of its hosts". Walsh described only the insect and did not know that it produced poplar galls. In 1867, Walsh wrote a paper for the sixth volume of its Proceedings on plant galls, and in a lengthy footnote moved species he had previously classed as Byrsocrypta to the genus Pemphigus; a later publication by him and Charles Valentine Riley confirmed this placement. In 1909, Giacomo del Guercio published a short paper in the Italian journal Rivista di Patologia Vegetale (transl. Journal of Plant Pathology), creating a new genus Mordwilkoja, to accommodate the species Walsh had described. Del Guercio named the new genus in honour of a "distinguished Russian entomologist", Alexander Mordvilko.

Commonly known as the poplar vagabond aphid, Mordwilkoja is an aphid classified in the subfamily Pemphiginae, tribe Pemphigini.

Life cycle and gall formation

Host plants

Mordwilkoja vagabunda infests poplar species as its primary host, affecting:

Loosestrife (Lysimachia) species are secondary hosts.

Citations

  1. 1 2 Walsh 1863, p. 306.
  2. 1 2 Smith 1971, p. 359.
  3. 1 2 3 Walsh & Riley 1869, p. 107.
  4. ↑ Walsh, B. D. (1867). "On the Insects, Coleopterous, Hymenopterous and Dipterous, inhabiting the Galls of certain species of Willow.—Part 2d and last". Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Philadelphia. 6: 280.
  5. ↑ Del Guercio 1909, p. 11.
  6. 1 2 Ignoffo & Granovsky 1961, p. 486.
  7. ↑ Coulson, Robert N.; Witter, John A. (1984). Forest Entomology: Ecology and Management. p. 613. ISBN 0-471-02573-9.
  8. ↑ "Mordwilkoja". Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Retrieved 2026-10-24.
  9. ↑ "Mordwilkoja vagabunda (Walsh, 1863)". Aphid Species File. Retrieved 2026-10-24.
  10. 1 2 3 Blackman, R. L.; Eastop, V. F. (1994). Aphids on the World's Trees: An Identification and Information Guide. CAB International and Natural History Museum, London. p. 756. doi:10.1079/9780851988771.0000.
  11. ↑ Maw, H. E. L.; Foottit, R. G.; Hamilton, K. G. A.; Scudder, G. G. E. (2000). Checklist of the Hemiptera of Canada and Alaska. Ottawa: National Research Council Canada. p. 38. ISBN 0-660-18165-7.
  12. ↑ "Mordwilkoja vagabunda". Gallformers. 4 Feb 2026. Retrieved 2026-10-25.
  13. ↑ A. M. Harper, G. A. Bradley (1987). Aphids of Alberta. Technical Bulletin 1987-7F. Lethbridge Research Station Contribution No. 8. Agriculture Canada. p. 8.
  14. 1 2 Hiratsuka, Yasuyuki (1995). A field guide to forest insects and diseases of the Prairie Provinces. Edmonton: Northern Forestry Centre. p. 173. ISBN 978-0-660-15948-5.

Bibliography