#aphididae

standing underneath mama for protection. these vetch aphids (Megoura viciae) are so flashy as adults that it can be hard to notice the babies hiding around them, although i imagine if you're a predator it really doesn't make much of a difference since you'd just gobble up the whole lot. standing underneath mama for barely any protection

[VIDEO TAKEN: JULY 16TH, 2025 | Video ID: A video of a colony of red/brown field ants tending to a large aphid farm on a small green plant, crawling up and down it, tongues and antennae prodding the aphids rapidly /End IDs.]

A worldwide pest of rosebushes, although winged adults may transfer to a handful of other hosts.

The aphid usually overwinters as eggs, but populations explode in spring via wingless females that reproduce parthenogenically.

Large populatins can damage the shoots and growing tips of the hostplant, and the honeydew they secrete (see the two droplets on the cornicles of the one below) is a substrate for sooty mould.