Dr. Pat Porter and I found several sugarcane aphids this morning on Johnson grass about 6 miles east of New Deal.
We found adults, several nymphs and even one alatoid (a nymph that will soon become a winged adult). We confirmed that these are in fact sugarcane aphids using a microscope and identifying their characteristic dark-tipped antennae, cornicles and feet.
This finding on May 3 is almost a full eight weeks before the first sighting of SCA in Lubbock Co on June 27 last year.
