Hello folks who wonder the reason woodlice are not aware of all the latest gossip about the Kardashian sisters is because they have been living under a rock for all this time,
Spring is finally here, which means it's time to cash in on the opportunity of posting those wildflower pictures on Instagram with #natureisbeautiful and get those easy likes. But while everyone is distracted with these colorful flowers, there is an interesting story taking place on the sidelines away from the limelight. All we need to do is, stop to smell the flowers, freak out if you can't smell them (relax people, it's a covid joke) and then look around the flowers.
One of the things you would likely see on the plants or grasses, away from the limelight of flowers are aphids.
These little green insects are like green colored sugar candies walking around to snack up on the sugars the plants are making in the kitchen. Just like jelly beans, aphids are found in a range of colors, but that is a topic for some other time. And just like jelly beans, they will be frequently seen hanging out in a group.
Aphids usually just poop liquid honeydew which is a sugar rich poop (Ants make sure that no aphid poop is wasted. Read more here), so if you see something solid, it is more likely they are giving birth to a daughter. After 3-d printing their daughters, they will twerk to gently separate the kid from their bodies.
But sometimes, if you look carefully, you might see one aphid that looks a little pale, a little different from others. "What's your deal?" you ask it. Why don't you like to be surrounded by friends or family? Social isolation is bad for your mental health and it might be killing you slowly", I say. But it has other things to worry about, there is something else that is killing it slowly.
You see, this aphid has been impregnated by a parasitoid wasp (No, it wasn't consensual if you are curious) and is host to the wasp larva eating it from inside.
"When is your baby due?", I ask. But I get no response. Below is the wasp larva wiggling around the body of the aphid, making itself at home.
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