Distribution and status: Cosmopolitan, India, Africa, Argentina, China, U.S.A., Europe, Australia 

Host range: Groundnut, red gram, peas, beans, safflower, lablab, niger

Damage symptoms: Both nymphs and adults cause the damage by sucking the plant sap.  Infested pods become deshaped, withered and malformed.  Severe infestation may result in complete drying of affected pods.  They also act as vector of pea virus.

Bionomics: It is a greenish black coloured aphid.  The total life cycle occupies an average of 3-8 days.  It reproduces parthenogenetically and viviparously.  The female may produce 8-30 young ones in a life span of 10-12 days.  The nymphs transform into adult in 5-8 days after passing through four instars.

Management 

• Grow resistant cowpea cultivars like P 1473, P 1476, MS 9369, Bendel Lobia 1
• Use entomopathogenic fungus Fusarium pallidoroseum or Beauveria bassiana to cause epizootics in aphids in the cowpea field.
• Spraying of infested crop with 500 methyl demeton 25 EC  or dimethoate or 125 ml imidaclorpid  in 500 L water per ha effectively control aphids.  As the strong point of this pest lies in its very quick multiplication, the insecticidal treatment has to be repeated as soon as aphid population is found to have built up again.