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Life cycle

This aphid is harmful only to apple; its secondary host plant is plantain, especially Plantago lanceolata.
Winter eggs are deposited in autumn at the base of buds or under bark. Eggs hatch from bud apparent swelling onwards and produce fundatrices. Each fundatrix gives birth parthenogenetically to about 70 apterous virginoparae. Dense colonies develop on the underside of leaves or on twigs. Apterous virginoparae produce apterous sexuparae, winged sexuparae and males. Alatae grow progressively in numbers and migrate to plantain. Spreading of apterous forms on other trees is ensured by the wind.
On apple, colonies develop in April, during the blossom period, and May. Alatae appear in late May, migrating to plantain up to late July. Winged adults return to apple from late September to November and produce winter eggs, which represent the overwintering form (source: HYPP, INRA).

Symptoms

The aphid injects a toxin with its saliva that causes the leaf to curl and drop prematurely, the fruits to be small and bumpy and the branches to be distorted.