California Velvety Tree Ants going for cheese on Greenbark Ceanothus
I put a small piece of pepper jack cheese on a branch of native Greenbark Ceanothus (Ceanothus spinosus, Rhamnaceae) that was inhabited by ants and aphids to see what would happen. The ants literally dropped their aphids to go for the cheese! Look, you can see a couple of stranded aphids just below the center. I believe the ants are the California Velvety Tree Ant (Liometopum occidentale, Dolichoderinae). I'm not sure what kind of aphids these are, but I'm pretty sure they become the black aphids in this photo. I don't really approve of baiting for photos, but this is my photo for the Macro Mondays group, with the theme of "Say Cheese!" This was really just a quick shot to test my idea, but the weather turned funky this week with rain and gloom, so here it is. HMM! (San Marcos Pass, 1 February 2017)
California Velvety Tree Ants going for cheese on Greenbark Ceanothus
I put a small piece of pepper jack cheese on a branch of native Greenbark Ceanothus (Ceanothus spinosus, Rhamnaceae) that was inhabited by ants and aphids to see what would happen. The ants literally dropped their aphids to go for the cheese! Look, you can see a couple of stranded aphids just below the center. I believe the ants are the California Velvety Tree Ant (Liometopum occidentale, Dolichoderinae). I'm not sure what kind of aphids these are, but I'm pretty sure they become the black aphids in this photo. I don't really approve of baiting for photos, but this is my photo for the Macro Mondays group, with the theme of "Say Cheese!" This was really just a quick shot to test my idea, but the weather turned funky this week with rain and gloom, so here it is. HMM! (San Marcos Pass, 1 February 2017)