Parna Bhadra and Amol Salokhe

Morphometric studies were carried out on four populations of Macrosiphum euphorbiae (Hemiptera: Aphididae) associated with four varieties of Rosa sp. Ten morphological characters were measured and the mean value of each character was compared to the same of the other three populations collected from different sites. Out of the ten characters (body length, body width, head width, siphunculus length, processus terminalis length, basal antenal segment), only length of siphunculus, antennae, body, width of body and ultimate rostral segment length indicated the occurence of locally adapted populations. Morphometric analyses suggested not only the occurrence of four morphologically differentiated groups within M. euphorbiae from four isolated localities and but also a preference of undisturbed forest area against the urban or city area by the pest species. We have tried to study if aphids show response to genetic variation (rose varieties) in their host plant and local conditions.

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