How aphids fly: Take-off, free flight and implications for short and long distance migration

We used a Phantom T4040 camera at 9350-13,000 FPS and at 4.2-Mpx resolution (2560 x 1664) . The aspect ratios varied, but were typically 2048 x 1280 pixels - 2560 x 1664. Videos were captured by the Phantom Camera Control software (PCC) as Cine RAW files and converted to MP4 for analysis and viewing in slow motion. A timer recording behaviour in milliseconds is embedded in MP4 files. Filming at high FPS and in HD requires specialist flicker-free high-speed illumination lighting: we used two GSVitec™ MultiLED MX that each produced 12,000 Lux of white light (24,000 total).

Videos include Drepanosiphum platanoidis (Schrank), the sycamore aphid, that feeds on Acer sp, a monophyletic group of trees ancestral to Asia, but present in Europe for the last 30 million years (Gao et al. 2020). Myzus persicae (Sulzer), the peach-potato aphid, is a medium sized aphid that is extremely polyphagous and is truly a global pest species.