Aphids - providing a high velocity ant beverage
June 28th, 2006
Yes, posting about Ants and Aphids again.
I was sitting on my front step yesterday looking at the plant that is infested with aphids. The ants have moved the aphids, and more aphids are present. It looks like the ants have two ‘farms’ of aphids.
A very interesting thing I noticed was what looked like spitting from where the aphids were. It was so small and happened so fast it took a while before I could see what was happening. As it turns out, it appears that the aphid ‘waste’ that the ants drink is literally ejected from the aphid at high speed. It was quite a distance away from where the aphids were, so it must get ejected to quite a distance.
I don’t know why the ants weren’t collecting it before it shot out, but it was interesting to see.I looked down at the leaves below noticed that they were covered in a clear sticky goo (yes, that’s a technical term!). Ah, the wonders of nature. 
There must be so many more living things participating in symbiotic relationships, as ants and aphids do.
UPDATE:
Apparently what happens is when the ants don’t collect the ‘honeydew’ from the aphids, the aphids flick the fluid away with their hind legs. How cool is that? It’s along the lines of monkeys throwing feces. Although I must admit, I’d take the aphids over the monkeys.
Entry Filed under: Nature and Science
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