This day was a day of amazing proportions. I realized just how "big" an ant is to an aphid. Can you see the ant on the left and the two aphids on the right?
From the Handbook of Nature Study, page 353:
"Aphids have the mouth in the form of a sucking-tube which is thrust into the stems and leaves of plants; through it the plant juices are drawn for nourishment. Aphids are the source of honeydew of which ants are fond."
Page 353-354 also has eight activities to observe aphids in your nature study. Anna Botsford Comstock suggests observing a plant infested with aphids with a hand lens. We were delighted for a long time watching the ants and aphids on our rose bush.
You have to love this from the HNS, page 351.
"I know of no more diverting occupation than watching a colony of aphids through a lens. These insects are the most helpless and amiable little ninnies in the whole insect world; and they look the part, probably because their eyes, so large and wide apart, seem so innocent and wondering."
Here is an ant on the front of the rose leaf.....see the tiny little aphid on the leaf on the left? Amazing.
Barb-Harmony Art Mom
