[5][13][2] Nonetheless, it remains a pest of serious concern due to its high mobility, discrete habitat, and adaptive plasticity, giving it the rightful reputation as a successful invader.

[6][14] Connecting the pest with plant symptoms is often delayed or unknown unless roots are carefully inspected, or winged adults are present above ground.

[4] Winged forms tend to display a darker coloration, and both life stages have a lateral bluish-white wax that bands across the dorsal region.

[16] Unique to root aphids, most of their life cycle occurs below ground, with winged adults only emerging from soil to colonize new host plants.

[19] They alternate between the aerial plant parts of Prunus species through the fall and winter while colonizing other herbaceous hosts' roots for the remainder of the year.

With this method, parthenogenesis, no fertilization is required for egg development; females give birth to genetically identical daughter offspring.

Both nymphs and adults feed on all development stages seedling, vegetative, or flowering, but survival can be limited to a few days without a host plant present.

[5][21] From Japan, it has migrated throughout Asia and Oceania and is now established in over fifty countries as an occasional or severe pest of many important growing regions.

[citation needed] R. rufiabdominale is a highly polyphagous species with a broad host range distributed across twenty-two plant families.

[24] Research has shown that they can infest a large number of dicotyledonous plants, although their affinity lies predominantly within monocotyledon taxonomic groups.

[citation needed] This preference is similar to the closely related R. maidis and R. padi and is especially true for plants that belong to the family Poaceae.

[7] In terms of economic importance, crops such as rice, barley, wheat, potato, tomato, plum, and apricot top the list.

[25] In both Europe and Canada, root aphid has been cataloged as a persistent or occasional pest in hydroponically grown plants with the first infestation in Ontario greenhouse tomatoes and peppers occurring in 2005.

[6] More recently, rice root aphid has been frequently reported as a severe pest of indoor-grown cannabis in Canada and the United States.

[9] Adults and nymphs externally feed on the roots and occasionally the stem, passively consuming the phloem, causing vigor loss.

[5][8] In rice, it is well documented that injury causes leaf chlorosis and stunted growth with severe infestations exhibiting wilt followed by plant death.

[4] While Hyadaphis foeniculi, honeysuckle aphid, was also detected and uncommon pest for celery, the combined infestation resulted in yield losses of up to 80% due to severe stunting.

It is a relatively complicated pest to manage because it primarily resides below the soil line, limiting biological control options and rendering foliar insecticides ineffective.

[4] These include Coccinellids, known as the ladybird beetles, Aphidoletes aphidimyza, or other syrphid fly larvae and Chrysoperla species, the green or brown lacewings.

[4] Differences in efficacy between modes of action and treatment combinations indicate that additional research would enhance pest management decision making.

The availability and application frequency of these types of products has declined with more recent concerns surrounding pest resistance, persistence in soils and water, accumulation in the food chain, and reductions of natural enemy populations.

[35][36] Carbofuran, a chemical soil treatment, once touted as a useful tool, is now proven to be highly toxic with environmental and ecological implications that negatively affect multitrophic level interactions.

[37] With scant chemical products and further reassessments and de-registrations expected as research evolves, this control method remains an unviable option for rice root aphid.