Friday, June 27, 2008

The Aphid Farm

The photos with adult ants have not been processed in Photoshop.




The small black oval creatures are the aphids.
These photos have been manipulated in Photoshop so that I could see the aphids.


Earlier this spring, I decided to let one of my rhubarb plants go to seed because I wanted to see the process and because I don't like yellow rhubarb. This week, Wingnut and I found that there were hundreds of ants on the rhubarb stalk. We have been trying to photograph the ants but it's been difficult. The light and weather have not cooperated. I still have problems focusing the Canon. Today I finally got some shots that were good enough for me to see what was going on on the rhubarb stalk. I had to manipulate the shadows and highlights to see, and I saw a huge aphid farm.

When I need information on bug behavior, I go to Bug Girl's blog. She keeps up with the latest research and this is what I found: ants may actually drug the aphids in order to control them so that they can harvest the aphid honeydew. Go and read more at the blog. I will go back out and try to get better photos.

When clicked, these photos will open, full size, in a new window.

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5 comments:

  1. WOW! You did it! You have more info there than I want to know about tho. lol Bugs/insects just don't interest me all that much.

    ReplyDelete
  2. That is too cool! Nice photos! Where you using a macro lense?

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  3. Ant are so so clever... great captures..

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