Lipid Composition of the Eggs from an Aphid

Abstract

THE eggs of aphids are usually difficult to find; to collect a sufficient quantity for chemical examination is generally unfeasible. In the summer of 1963, however, an extremely large population of Euceraphis punctipennis Zett. was observed on weeping birch, Betula penduta tristris, near Driebergen, Holland. In late October the sexual females were ovipositing, and in mid-December 900 eggs, weighing a total of 60 mg, were collected. The eggs were macerated in a small glass homogenizer and their lipids extracted three times with 0.5 ml. of CHCl₃ / MeOH (2:1 v/v). The extracts were combined, evaporated to dryness at 30° C in a stream of nitrogen, redissolved in the extraction solvent and the lipids purified after the method of Folch et al.¹. The purified lipids weighed 8.3 mg, or 13.9 per cent of the fresh weight of the eggs.