Preliminary Study on Impact of Altitudinal Clines Over Distribution of Aphidoidea Complex in Kaghan Valley, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

A phids are soft-bodied insects that belong to family Aphididae of order Hemiptera and commonly known as phloem feeders.They normally range in size from 0.7-7.0mm and can be green, brown, black, red and yellowish depending upon species as well as host type ( Jalalizand, et al., 2012).They are cosmopolitan and are more commonly found in temperate regions (Maryam, et al., 2019).High fecundity rate, smaller size, recurring parthenogenetic reproduction, short development time, varied host-plant partialities and close by association with host plants makes aphids an economically important pest worldwide (Akyürek et al., 2019).In addition to their notoriety as enemies of plant farmers, they are exceptionally interesting scientifically, especially at the genetic and molecular levels (Loxadle et al., 2020). Aphids show an inverse relationship with elevation,Abstract | Diversity of Aphidoidea in Kaghan valley of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistan is studied for the first time since 1947 i.e. the inception of Pakistan.Aphids were recorded from cultivated as well as wild plants grown at variable altitudes of the valley.A total of 398 individuals were collected from 26 host plants of which, 23 species and 13 genera are reported for the first time for this valley.Within the recorded fauna, Macrosiphum euphorbiae was found to be abundant with 103 individuals followed by Myzus persicae and Aphis craccivora, respectively.