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Hemiptera / Sternorrhyncha
Scale insects being farmed by ants
Spotted at Indonesia rainforest at Tanjung Lesung area, between rice fields and coastal area.
Scale Insects feed on the sap of plants rich in sugars, but not in protein, so they have to consume it in large quantities excreting droplets of "honeydew", the ants feed this droplets rich in sugar and in change they take care of them agains predators or the weather, as a consequence the Scale Insects can easily grow in number and the plant can also be affected by this over population.
Spotted on Nov 21, 2015
Submitted on Nov 30, 2015
3 Comments
You're welcome, Jordi
Very interesting Scott thanks for comment
Scale insects being "farmed" by ants. See http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/793...