The Brown Citrus Aphid, Toxoptera Citricida (Kirkaldy)

Kirkaldy (1907) described this species as Myzus citricidus from Hawaii on citrus. Citricida means killer of citrus (Eastop and Lambers, 1976). Takahashi (1938) placed it in the genus Toxoptera based on the striations on the venter of the abdomen and the stridulating organs on the hind femor (Essig, 1949). The Common Names of Insects list gives it as the brown citrus aphid (fig. 1). It is a known vector of the tristeza citrus virus. It can be separated from the closely related species of Toxoptera aurantii (Fonscolombe)(fig. 2) by having the median wing veins branched twice as opposed to being branched once as in aurantii.