Sunday, June 12, 2011

Murder in macro

A wolf in the flock!

This ladybird larvae wastes no time in ripping into the herd of feeding aphids. Instead of sweet nectar, this one ejects blood from its rear. The Ladybird grub will have to feed fast before the Black ant guardians catch wind of her and rush to the attack. Their passion for aphids have made the Ladybird the number one friend to gardeners in England.

Everyone loves Ladybirds!

The tiny shepard



The ant farmer and his flock



Bumble bee



Aphid on flower

My Girlfriend took these next four pictures with her fantastic new camera. Amazing macro pictures!


Milking Aphids

A worker ant tends its flock of aphids. I watched them moving aphids around to better spots on the plant were the feeding was better. The better the spot the more sweeter the liquid they produce.
Ants are the only animals apart from humans to farm other species in this way. It belies another form of high intelligence.











Milking Aphids

Mean while back at the Black ant colony, herds of tiny aphids are being shepherded and milked by their black ant guardians. The ants stimulate the feeding aphids with their antennae, which in turn makes the aphid release a drop of sweet liquid. The ants greedily gobble these up and grow very fat on the sweet nectar. In return the ants protect the feeding pests from their predator's, namely lady birds and their larvae.











Tad poles

My rescued Tad poles are growing fast and looking more like frogs every day. It won't be long now before they are hopping the nest.



A Wasp Beetle

This type of Long horned Beetle is a excellent wasp mimic and uses it's disguise to fool predators. It is searching for a good place to lay it's eggs in an old tree.

All Out Turf War

A bad photo, but proof of all out war in the garden. A Black ant is carried away to feed the ever growing numbers of Red invaders.

Red Ants!



The snail is cut into tiny pieces and transported back to the nest in the flower bed.



A large soldier ant cleans his antennae after feeding on the snail carcass.

Better Dead than Red!

Enemy ants spotted and in great numbers. These busy little reds are dissecting a snail that has died on the patio.





I don't mind the useful Black Ants, it's these stinging Reds that make a trip to the garden a painful one. They have been taking over large areas of Black Ant territory this year and a full on turf war is in progress across the whole garden.