Insect Symbionts - # - Alex Wild Photography - Insect Photography

Symbioses

Images of animals that cooperate or live with ants to the benefit of both.

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Podomyrma adelaidae tends to a Lycaenid caterpillar. These caterpillars secrete substances that the ants find attractive, and the ants in turn provide protection from parasites.

Poochera, South Australia

Protected inside a translucent silken tent, Oecophylla longinoda weaver ants gather honeydew from mealybugs. The ants weave the tent using silk produced by their larvae.

St. Lucia, KZN, South Africa

A Linepithema iniquum worker collects honeydew from a flat scale insect.

Maquipucuna reserve, Pichincha, Ecuador

Ants (Pheidole megacephala) tending aphids for honeydew. The tight association of ants and aphids give the ants a significant carbohydrate boost and the aphids protection from predators.

St. Lucia, KZN, South Africa

The prickly little beast on the right is a millipede in the genus Polyxenus. I found several of these living in the brood nest of a Temnothorax rugatulus ant, where they were probably scavenging on the ant's refuse.

Huachuca Mountains, Arizona, USA

Martineziana dutertrei is a small scarab beetle that lives in fire ant mounds.

Austin, Texas, USA

Monomorium floricola ranks among the most traveled of all ants. This diminutive species has spread with human commerce to nearly every lowland tropical region. Here, a worker tends to a mealybug in Panama.

Isla Contadora, Panama

Formicine ants are often dependent on honeydew-producing insects. Here, Lepisiota sp. workers tend to scale insects in a South African forest.

St. Lucia, KZN, South Africa

On the underside of a sun-soaked leaf, Aphaenogaster tennesseensis tending to Entylia sp. treehoppers. The treehoppers secrete sweet honeydew for the ants in exchange for protections from parasites and predators.

Lake Glendale, Illinois, USA

Podomyrma adelaidae tends to a Lycaenid caterpillar. These caterpillars secrete substances that the ants find attractive, and the ants in turn provide protection from parasites.

Poochera, South Australia

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