Another day, another new aphid species. I spotted these aphids during an hour’s random leaf-fossicking in a local park.

As you can see, some were egg-laying on pine needles – the eggs are orange when first laid, then turn darker as they develop. From the aphids’ markings, they look to be Cinara brauni, also known as the Corsican pine shoot aphid.

As I’m useless at identifying conifers (must try harder!), I didn’t realise the pine trees in this park were Corsican pine (Pinus nigra), but the Influential Points website, which is my go-to information source for all things aphid, says that though ‘Formerly considered rare in both Europe and the UK (Carter & Maslen (1982)), Cinara brauni has been (accidentally) introduced into several countries through importation of Corsican pines, and is now considered an invasive species.’ That seems a very good reason not to import trees from abroad when there are plenty of British native trees that could be planted instead but, being from New Zealand where we have very strict border controls on flora and fauna importation, I can’t help but be aware of how slack Britain is in this regard.

As I often find with the aphid species I record, there are very few official records of Cinara brauni, either in the Welsh national database (Aderyn), or in iRecord. As the Influential Points website says these aphids are common in southern Britain, I have to assume that is due to under-recording.