Until now, Metopolophium festucae cerealium has not been reported on cereal crops in the US, but it is a pest of wheat and other cereal crops in the UK. Studies suggest that this aphid prefers wheat to other grasses. In June and July 2011, a survey of aphids in wheat was initiated in Washington, Oregon and Idaho. M. f. cerealium was found in nearly every sample collected from both spring and winter wheat in all three states (Figure 1). 

If we go back in time twelve thousand years from the present, to a period marking the formation of the Puget Sound within the Pacific Northwest (PNW) region of North America, we see geo-climatic conditions drastically different from those predominating on Earth today. With one half of Earth's surface covered in ice, extensive glaciation  drove massive landscape alteration and mass extinction of biota. This glaciation progressed via a feedback loop of changing abiotic forces,including drastic reductions of mean global temperature.