A plural form of aphid, small soft-bodied insects that suck sap from plants and can reproduce rapidly in colonies.
From Greek 'aphi' (possibly onomatopoetic). 'Aphides' is the classical Latin plural, now largely replaced by the English 'aphids' in modern usage.
A single aphid can give birth to live young without mating—not eggs, but clones—which means a population can explode in weeks with barely any genetic diversity!
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