Exceptional plant penetration and feeding upon cortical parenchyma cells by the woolly poplar aphid

► Phloeomyzus passerinii feeds from cortical parenchyma tissue of poplar trunk. ► EPG analysis was appropriate ways of studying the mode of feeding of P. passerinii. ► The stylet pathways of P. passerinii differed from those of phloem sap feeding aphids. ► There were differences in the waveforms A and C and a new waveform was described. ► The new waveform Icp corresponds to a cortical parenchyma intracellular phase.