From the article:
Ant-attended aphids are known to excrete high-quality honeydew when ants are present. Ant attendance has a negative effect on the growth and reproduction of the attended aphids. Therefore, trade-offs should occur between the quality of honeydew and the growth and fecundity of aphid individuals. Thus, if attending ants prefer the morph excreting a high-quality honeydew, such trade-offs and resulting competitive interactions are expected between the color morphs in M. yomogicola. The morph excreting high-quality honeydew is known to have a lower reproductive rate than the other morphs[9,10]. This fact implies that if the attending ants prefer one morph, this morph is expected to excrete high-quality honeydew. Note that any such difference between morphs leads to the exclusion of the inferior morphs. Surprisingly, nearly all colonies consist of both green and red morphs in the field.
How this has 131 votes and nobody seems to be surprised to learn ants FARM aphids. Excuse me, what?
I learned that in biology class 20 years ago.
Have you never seen A Bug’s Life? The queen has a pet aphid.
I haven’t actually. That movie kinda flew past me.
Bonkers
“nO aNiMaL dRiNkS aNoThErS MiLk!!!111!!!”
I can hear the ant Karens screeching already as they drag their malnourished young to the ant plasma donation center.
Sooooo ants aren’t vegan? Do vegans try to free the aphids? I suppose morals aren’t applied to insects but humans are animals too. I don’t understand why we are separated from the animal kingdom in the eyes of vegans, who, at the same time , claim equal rights for animals.
If you’re going to feed your pet carnivore a vegan diet then i think you should be saving the aphids.
