Cryptomyzus ribis
Cryptomyzus ribis is a species of true bug found in Europe and described by the Swedish taxonomist, Carl Linnaeus in 1758. The larvae feed on the leaves of currant bushes, especially red currant, creating abnormal plant growths, known as galls.
Description
Signs of Cryptomyzus ribis are domed blisters on the leaves of, mainly red and white currant bushes. Soon after the leaves open in the spring, the galls are yellow and turn red by the early summer. Leaves can also be crinkled, with a colony of yellow-greenish aphids living in the hairy depressions on the underside of the leaves. Cultivars of red currants are preferred. Adults are long. During the summer some mature aphids leave the galls and migrate to a secondary host, hedge woundwort, while others stay on currants. All produce several generations, and in the autumn, females lay overwintering eggs on currant twigs, which hatch the following spring.Red currant is the preferred species, but the aphid has also been recorded on mountain currant, wild black currant, golden currant, blackcurrant, Canadian gooseberry, rock currant and European gooseberry.
;Other species
Damage, such as buckled, crumpled, inrolled and distorted leaves, can be caused by other species of aphids, but without the thickening of tissue are not considered to be true galls.