Evidence for the Presence of Aphids (Hemiptera: Aphididae) in México during Pre-colombian Times

At the National Museum of Anthropology and History in Mexico City, in a gallery dedicated to the civilization of western Mexico, a ceramic figure that resembles an insect was found among other figures representing birds and mammals. The figure that resembles an insect is 22 to 25 cm long and 20 to 25 cm tall. It was found inside a “tumba de tiro”, a kind of grave, of the late Preclassic and Early Classic Period at Colima, Mexico (Valdez 1994). The figure is estimated to have been created between 200 B.C. and 600 A.C. The shape of the figure seems to come from an observation in situ, more than the sole imagination of the author. The figure is morphologically similar to an apterous female aphid (Hemiptera: Aphididae) parasitized by a hymenopteran insect. The characteristics of an apterous female aphid (Borror et al. 1989) that are coincident with those in the figure are: absence of wings, pear-shaped body, and cornicles on the back (Fig. 1). The thorax and abdomen are not differentiated, as they are in winged aphids, because both body parts are similar in color and consistency (Pena 1992). When observing the shape and inclination of the figure, the front part appears to be the aphid head with mouthparts at the inferior level, as though in a feeding position. The details of the thorax-abdomen in the figure fit the description of aphids parasitized by hymenopterous Aphelinidae and Aphidiinae (Braconidae), as indicated by Knutson et al. (1993) and Pope and Tollefson (1998). Parasitized aphids acquire a golden color and remain attached to the green vegetal tissue substrate on which they were feeding (Godfray 1994, Saunderland et al. 2005). Antennae are not found on the ceramic figure. The antennae of the aphid model for the ceramic figure might have been overlooked because of lack of a magnifying instrument such as a microscope that was not available until the second half of the 17 Century (Kruif 1982), at least 1,000 years after the figure was created. Antennae also might be lacking from the figure because antennae are lost when the cuticle of a parasitized aphid hardens (Knutson et al. 1992), and appendages are lost because of wind, hand manipulation, or other reasons. ________________________ Colegio de Postgraduados, Montecillo, Texcoco, Edo. de Mexico Campo Experimental General Teran, General Teran, N. L. Paseo de la Reforma and Gandhi Street, Bosque de Chapultepec, D. F.