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This is the larval stage of a syrphid fly - they love to eat aphids, and this monster ate a lot !!!!!! The clear patch around it is a 'clean plate' - and the rest of the meal is still sitting waiting to be eaten !!

Sorry for my lack of knowledge in nature/biology jargon... what are aphids? I assume those are the little yellow things on the branch, but are they living creatures or just another piece of a plant?

sorry Yi-P ...
Aphids are a sap sucking insect, which are found congregating in HUGE numbers on plants - they can do significant damage, and may even kill the plant on which they are feeding. Aphids can reproduce asexually, so each female gives birth to hundres of offspring, without having to mate - producing little clones of themselves. The yellow bit that you can see is the abdomen (the belly filling up with plant sap), and the spiny things sticking out the back are called tubercles ... the mouthparts are at the 'front', and are inserted into the stem. Syrphid larvae (the maggot - the green thing) specialise in feeding on the aphids - and the aphids are stuck with their mouthparts sticking into the plant and don't 'get away' ... so the syrphid trundles along and just eats

Hope this makes sense ??????

Hugs

Excellent macro shot! Obviously it wasn't a windy day...the scourge of outdoor macro shots.

Yum - Yum produces excellent shot

blacknstormy wrote:Hope this makes sense ??????

Even to me. Thanx muhly for the concise but detailed explanation, Rel. Although I knew what aphids were, your description of how they feed has provided me with a greater knowledge of them.

Is there nothing our members here do not know?

No!

Hi
On the leaf to the right are little white things with legs, what are they?
Love your work by the way

 LOL - whew, glad it made at least some sense then

It was windy - I was holding the milkweed stem still with one hand and taking the shot with the other ....

Interesting photo and story on these liitle critters Rel.

It sort of looks like fresh corn on the cob

Well done Rel.

gstark wrote: Is there nothing our members here do not know?

Well I'd love one of those 105VR lenses and I don't know when I will be able to afford it!!

Cheers, Mick

Thanks again

Gunn - sorry, we posted at the same time, and I missed yours until now

On the leaf to the right are little white things with legs, what are they?
Basically, the white thing with legs is an old 'skin'.
Insects have what is known as an exoskeleton - our skeleton is on the inside, insects have theirs on the outside ... inside is just all nice and mushy When they grow, the skeleton can't stretch, so they 'shed' their skin, and come out of their old skin with a 'new skin' that is slightly pliable .... so they puff it up (so to speak) and keep on feeding - kind of like putting on pants with a larger waistband so you can fill up at Christmas  LOL