It is an important vector of the barley yellow dwarf virus (BYDV) which causes serious reductions in yields of affected crops.

The rose-grass aphid has an almost cosmopolitan distribution, being found in most parts of the world where its secondary hosts are grown.

[2] Wingless adults are between 2 and 3 mm (0.08 and 0.12 in) long, slender, glossy yellowish-green with a darker dorsal stripe.

The antennae, legs and siphunculi (erect, backward-pointing tubes on the abdomen) are relatively long and pale in colour.

On hatching in the spring, rose-grain aphids feed on rose at first, but do not persist on it beyond about June in the northern hemisphere, dispersing to grasses and cereal crops in midsummer.