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Ants collecting honeydew

Taken on a hot June afternoon when aphids were in abundance on some kind of wild vine that seems to grow everywhere in Massachusetts. I'm pretty sure it's some kind of invasive species... grows like Kudzu. Several varieties of ants were tending the aphids, doing their usual antennae tapping to persuade the aphids to dispense droplets of honeydew. Some ants would pass a droplet to another, maybe "teaching" less experience younger ants what the process was all about.

 

Taken while experimenting with a pair of objectives that had recently been scavenged from two damaged lenses, a 90-230mm Soligor, and a 80-200 Nikon. The Soligor objective was mounted reversed on a Nikon 105mm f/2.5 AI-S lens, with the Nikon 80-200mm reverse mounted on the Soligor. Lighting provided by a small speelight flashed through a diffuser made from the bowl that comes in a frozen dinner.

 

 

DSC-9483

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Uploaded on January 13, 2023
Taken on June 24, 2021