Association of aphids (Homoptera: Aphididae) with the flowering plants of nitrogen-fixing clade of fabids (Angiosperms: Eudicots) in India

The present checklist deals with the association of aphids with the plants belonging to the four orders of nitrogen-fixing clade of fabids eudicot angiosperms, i.e. Cucurbitales, Fabales, Fagales and Rosales recorded in India. Total 294 species of plants of these orders belonging to 124 genera and 13 families are associated with 239 species of aphids put into 102 genera and 7 subfamilies of aphids. The aphids are related with only two families of Cucurbitales, Begoniaceae and Cucurbitaceae. Single species of Begoniaceae and 21 species of Cucurbitaceae are associated with 2 and 25 species of aphids, respectively. Almost 67 species of aphids are associated with 111 species of plants belonging to Fabaceae. Fagales includes 3 families, Betulaceae, Fagaceae and Juglandaceae and 38, 89 and 20 species of aphid use 6, 16 and 3 species of plants of these families, respectively. Among Rosales, maximum species of plants (89 species) of Rosaceae are infested by 166 species of aphids followed by Moraceae (17 species of plants by 27 species of aphids), Urticaceae (13 species of plants by 28 species of aphids), Cannabaceae (6 species of plants by 7 species of aphids), and less than it on Rhamnaceae, Ulmaceae and Elaeagnaceae. Aphis (Aphis) gossypii Glover is highly polyphagous on this clade of eudicots infesting 73 plant species, followed by Aphis (Aphis) spiraecola Patch (36 plant species), Myzus (Nectarosiphon) persicae (Sulzer) (27 plant species), Aphis (Toxoptera) aurantii Boyer de Fonscolombe and Brachycaudus (Brachycaudus) helichrysi (Kaltenbach) (26 plant species each) and Myzus (Myzus) ornatus Laing (25 plant species).