Happy weekend all! I hope you have great plans to get outside and enjoy something interesting. There is so much going on in the forests and fields this time of year, it’s hard to find time to do it all!
Our last puzzler was maybe something you’ve seen in your yard or garden, a bunch of ants hanging out on the stems of plants with many tiny creatures. These creatures are so tiny you may not even have seen them. The tiny insect is called an aphid, also known as plant lice. There are many different kinds and colors of aphids but they all suck the sap of plants and are the bane of farmers and gardeners everywhere. A large number of aphids on a plant can inflict a lot of damage. But, you might be thinking, why are there ants around them?
The ants are there to offer protection to the aphids from ladybugs and other predators and in return, the ants get to feed on a sweet liquid called honeydew that the aphids expel from their butts! The ants actually “milk” the aphids by gently stroking them with their antennae, causing the aphids to offer a sweet treat for their efforts. The ants carry this honeydew back to their nests where they feed it to their developing larvae. Some ants even take this relationship one step further and will carry the aphids to a new location should the need come up. They will also make the relationship a little more one-sided by taking the wings off aphids before they can fly off to establish a new colony elsewhere, thus leaving the ant without a yummy and sweet food source. Talk about an interesting relationship!
Since we’re talking about insects, I’ll feature another as my weekly puzzler. It’s a large insect with long antennae and dark wings that have some white on them.