April 18, 2009 I saw this winged adult Aphid just after it emerged from nymph skin on the stem of a columbine flower in my garden. The wings are still damp.
, a sweet liquid obtained from the plant juices, which the ants like to eat. I had seen several of these strange-looking, brown aphids on my milkweed leaves. While researching about a parasitic wasp, I came across a photo like this, I was amazed to learn that it is an "Aphid Mummy", an aphid that had been parasitized by a tiny Brachonid wasp. If the exoskeleton of the aphid was opened, a small wasp larva would be revealed. Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction! The little black "tubes" protruding from the back end of the aphids are called cornicles, which are used for releasing a fluid used in defense (see previous photo).
These Wooly Apple Aphids were covering a black berry leaf at Haw Ridge. Notice the long white, waxy threads.
