Aphid Bulletins

 

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The 'Scottish Aphid Bulletin' consists of a table of 21 species, mostly species of major economic significance, and a second table listing all the other 'non-bulletin' aphids caught during the week. 

SASA currently operates four suction traps located at Inverness, Ayr, Dundee and at SASA's headquarters at Gogarbank on the west side of Edinburgh. Data from each of these traps are presented as totals for the duration of each report. Only the traps at Edinburgh and Dundee are consistently identified in 'real time' so are presented as cumulative totals and compared to previous years.

Three additional columns of data are also presented under the title of 'Cumulative Totals'. The first presents the total catch from the two traps (Edinburgh and Dundee) for the current year, up to and including the period covered by the report. The second column provides the yearly catch of aphids for the equivalent period during the previous year, i.e. 2021. The final column provides the mean cumulative catch of aphids over the same period during the previous 10 years, i.e. 2012-2021. Presenting the data in this way enables the current year's catch of any species to be viewed in the context of data from both the previous year and an average year. As the last column presents an arithmetic mean, this figure is strongly influenced by those years when the total for that particular species of aphid has been high. 

In November 2000, the historic Elgin trap ceased operation due to the sale of the site. A new Elgin trap was erected approximately 4 kilometres from the old Elgin site. This trap started collecting aphids on 16 May 2002, and discontinued in October 2016. A permanent home for the northern trap has now been identified at Knocknagael Stud Farm, Inverness. This trap started running on 18 April 2019, has been added to the bulletin and will be added to cumulative totals in due course. 

At the end of 2005, the Edinburgh trap ceased operation at the East Craigs site. It was replaced by the Gogarbank trap located 3 kilometres to the south-west of East Craigs. The 10-year averages for Edinburgh now consist entirely of data from the new trap.

SASA is extremely grateful to the organisations where the traps are sited and to the staff who collect the samples. If you require any further information, or wish to use the contents of the Scottish Aphid Bulletins in any way, please email the Zoology team.