Ants are amazing. These photographs were taken on Cape Cod, Truro, MA.
Aphids suck on plants and produce a substance commonly known as honeydew, which they release from their alimentary canals. Essentially, when they pierce the plant stem’s phloem with their mouth parts, the plant’s sugary substance is forced through their bodies and out their anus.
In a mutualistic relationship ants protect these aphids from lady beetle or lacewing larvae, and maybe even spiders, in return for the prized honeydew these aphids produce. They milk these aphids by stroking them with their antennae. I’ve even read that the ants will bite the wings off the ants to keep them on the plant.
Though aphids are mostly eaten by ground spiders, the orb web spider in a couple of the pictures on this post may very well be a threat given the aphid’s proximity.
