Aphid Party

Images made through a microscope. All subject types.

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houstontx
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Joined: Fri Jul 31, 2015 1:07 pm

Aphid Party

Post by houstontx »

Aphids taken on a flowering plant in the garden. 1st pic is of my first 10 image stack with Zerene Pmax (just bought it). To me this is a pretty fun composition since we see multiple life stages (white things are shriveled aphid moltings). 2nd pic is a single shot with UV flashlight to show the fluorescence potential. I have yet to attempt a UV stack, but aphids seem to be good subjects. My lighting is awful, a cheap led ringlight no diffusion. Auto White balanced & sharpened in gimp so its overall its pretty bad.

But had to share because these guys are just so fascinating. And I noticed some kind of symbioses between these guys and ants, they are stuck face down into the leaves/stems and the ants hover around them and seem to care for them somehow.

Forgot to add this was taken with a Wild M3 Apo at 25x setting. Canon t3i and 2.5x Lens in the phototube.

Image
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Ken Ramos
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Post by Ken Ramos »

Nice photos but I could not help but to notice some under age aphids at the party. :smt030

rjlittlefield
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Post by rjlittlefield »

Nice shot -- live aphids are tough to stack!

You have here a typical riotous collection of aphids.

The ants will be "farming" them, offering protection and sometimes transport in exchange for sweet exudate. Searching the internet for ants farming aphids will get lots of info.

It looks like you also have quite a few "mummy" aphids. Those are the dull gray ones. Each of those is hosting a parasitic wasp, which will eventually emerge by cutting a small circular hole in the side of the distended abdomen. See for example http://www.photomacrography1.net/forum/ ... php?t=3643 and the follow-up at http://www.photomacrography1.net/forum/ ... php?t=3719 . Search aphid mummy for more info.

--Rik

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