Lmst

#MiteMonday: Did you know? Legally, you can take as many photos of ants farming ridiculously mite-infested aphids as you want. No one can stop you.

#DailyMitePic #Mitestodon #arachnids #mites #ants #aphids #Acari #parasitism #Parasitengona #Hemiptera #Aphididae #Hymenoptera #Formicidae

On a plant stem against a green background, a red-brown ant (Myrmica rubra, I think) gently touches a tiny black aphid with its antennae. There are so many bright red parasitic larval mites on it (and the other two aphids in the photo) that it is practically more mite than aphid.

A much busier plant stem, with several M. rubra ants tending a crop of black aphids with plentiful but much smaller mites on them.

#MiteMonday: an oddly colourless whirligig mite (family Anystidae) feeds on a red _Uroleucon_ aphid. Hmmm… :thonking:

#DailyMitePic #Mitestodon #arachnids #mites #Acari #Anystidae #aphids #Aphididae

In the green shade of a goldenrod stem, a squat, star-legged, pale whirligig mite feeds on a small dark red aphid. (More aphids of the same kind are in the background.) Whirligig mites are normally orange- to cherry-red, but this one is almost translucent, and its normally inconspicuous dark red eyes are quite visible.

A _Uroleucon_ aphid is born! It's a girl…and it's a girl!

Aphids can reproduce asexually, and they give live birth, AND their clone babies are born already pregnant with their own clones. This helps them multiply so fast. (They can also switch to sexual reproduction and laying eggs.)

Note the cluster of orange-red parasitic mites on the mother aphid! They're something from the large group Parasitengona (which includes red velvet mites, sidewalk mites, etc.), but I need to do more research to narrow it down.

#DailyMitePic #Mitestodon #arachnids #mites #parasitism #bugstodon #insects #aphids #Acari #Parasitengona #Hemiptera #Aphididae

A dark red aphid with black legs, cornicles, and antennae, standing on a goldenrod stem. It has a cluster of small, blobby orange-red mites near its head. A tiny baby aphid (brighter red, with translucent legs and cornicles instead of black) is almost done emerging butt-first from the rear orifice; its legs are loose and moving freely.

Es geht auch ohne Männer😉

Die Große Weidenrindenlaus (Tuberolachnus salignus) pflanzt sich ausschließlich über Weibchen fort. Man findet sie insbesondere an Weiden und erkennt sie u. a. an dem Höcker.

#natur #artenvielfalt #nature #insekten #Blattläuse #Aphididae #insects #makro

This evening I noticed a clump of large carpenter ants (_Camponotus_), normally frantic, just standing around. A closer look revealed they were tending to giant willow aphids (_Tuberolachnus salignus_)!

#InsectSaturday #arthropods #insects #ants #aphids #Hymenoptera #Formicidae #Hemiptera #Aphididae

A curved line of giant willow aphids, grey and pitted with large, conical black cornicles (butt spikes), on the root of a willow tree. They are surrounded by glossy black carpenter ants gathering/drinking honeydew, the aphids' sugary exudate.

Some aphids in Central Park. I do not know enough about aphids to identify the different species.

#aphids #aphididae #insects #entomology #macro #ultramacro #centralpark #nycparks #canonphotography #luminarneo

#Aphididae

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