AphidTraits: an open dataset of temperature-dependent trait responses in aphids (Hemiptera: Aphididae)

Paul J Huxley , Catherine A Lippi, Leah R Johnson

Aphids are among the most destructive and economically impactful group of agricultural pests. Their successful management hinges on integrative and sustainable control practices. Given the global scope of aphid impacts, mathematical models are invaluable for developing informed control strategies, particularly in the context of changing climate. Such models typically require detailed empirical data to adequately quantify relationships between environmental factors and aphid life history traits. However, appropriate data are often spread throughout the literature or are in disparate formats, hindering model building efforts. To address this issue, we have developed AphidTraits, a fully open, machine-readable dataset that adheres to VecTraits standards. AphidTraits focuses on the temperature dependence of multiple types of traits (e.g., life-history, behavioral, morphological) in aphid species and consolidates experimental data from diverse published literature. The current data product contains 36,417 trait records from 257 publications, representing 93 aphid taxon names across 48 genera and studies published between 1939 and 2025. AphidTraits captures further trait variation across species, populations, and environmental conditions, providing a valuable resource for novel secondary analyses across studies.