Wallonia, Belgium, today.
I stumbled upon a plant covered with small bundles of aphids, and sure enough, upon closer inspection, it had a whole aphid farming operation going on, and ladybugs had found it.
The ant tried blocking the way but fell off. Hopefully it’s okay somewhere. The aphids, unfortunately, will not be.
Human: Aww, cute little ladybug!
Ant: IT COMES, THE GREAT TERROR, DESTROYER OF WORLDS. THE END-TIMES ARE HERE!
Macro photography: saving you the cost of an “Oppenheimer” ticket, for the mere cost of all the money you have.
If ants herd aphids and ladybugs hunt aphids…are ladybugs ants’ wolves?
Wonderful shot! It makes me miss our native lady bugs! They’ve all been out competed by asian lady beetles, that are orange instead of red.
That’s a shame… I saw a few asian lady beetles too, but the native ones are thankfully much more numerous. I had no idea they were invasive, though. Good to know.
I think the aphids are about to have a much worse day!
Funny relationship between ants, aphids, and lady bugs. The ants eat the residue that aphids make, so they like to keep the aphids around. The lady bugs eat aphids. Otherwise ants and lady bugs don’t care about each other - neither eats the other. A lady but will usually ignore a solitary ant, but they’ll take off if there’s a bunch, because the ants will protect the aphids.
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