Humans love to keep pets and some animals will also keep “pets”. Some ants keep aphids. Pets such as cats and dogs can bring happiness to humans, and at the same time obtain shelter and food from humans. So, what benefits do ants and aphids benefit from each other?
Pasture on plants
In the vigorous plants, the leaves of a plant are curly and yellow. If you look closely, you will find a small piece of “ant pasture”. The owner is a few majestic ants who patrol the plants carefully, and The animals they feed are aphids, which are squeezing and crawling on the stalks or leaves of plants.
Ants and their aphids
There are thousands of animals that live with ants. In addition to aphids, there are scale insects, tree cicadas, and lycaenidae larvae. Only some species of ants coexist with aphids.
Ants raise “cows”
Ants can get “honeydew” from aphids. Honeydew contains a lot of sugar, which can provide rich nutrition for ants. Just as people raise cows to get milk, as long as ants pat aphids with their tentacles, the tail of aphids will produce a drop of honeydew for ants to eat.
Ants make aphids produce a drop of honeydew.
Ants are the bodyguards of aphids
The ants who have received the “protection fee” should certainly do their duty of protection. When aphids encounter the threat of natural enemies, such as ladybugs, they will release a special gas that ants can distinguish. When ants receive the “alarm signal” of aphids, they will start to act. They will stand up and drive away the enemy with open teeth and claws. Even if the enemy is of the same kind, they do not hesitate to launch an “ant civil war” to protect aphids.
Ants are attacking an invading ladybug.
The mutually beneficial living habits of ants and aphids are called “symbiosis” between organisms.
Ants are the keepers of aphids
In addition, the ants will place the aphid eggs in the ant nest for the winter and take good care of them. When the aphids hatch in the spring, the ants will carefully send the small aphids to live on the twigs. When plants wither due to the ingestion of aphids, ants will also transfer aphids to healthy plants to ensure that aphids have enough food.
“Pet domestication method” of ants
So how do ants find and control aphids? When an ant finds the aphid group, it will return to the nest and leave pheromones on the way, so that companions can find the aphid group through marks. At the same time, they will secrete a special chemical to calm the aphid and inhibit the growth of aphid wings, making them quiet and slow, so they are “domesticated” by ants and can not escape easily. Of course, only aphids that can secrete honeydew will be locked by ants.
Ants are carrying aphids
Aphids
Aphids are widely distributed insects with small size but amazing reproductive ability. In a warm environment, they can reproduce for one generation in 4 ~ 5 days.
Aphids are also the most hated insects by farmers. They like to eat plant juice. Some of them do great harm to some cash crops. They can be said to be one of the most destructive pests in the world.
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