A Bug Battle & Macro Mystery #3

This week, on bug MMA…

Here’s Aphid, but wait? Does something look strange?

Aphid has been put in a choke hold by Tiny Ninja!

Tiny Ninja has Aphid by the neck and won’t let go.

Aphid heads toward the cage, but he’s having no luck in shaking Tiny Ninja.

This thing’s over – it’s just a matter of time.

Hold on, it looks like Aphid is making his way to the bottomless pit – if he goes down, he’s making sure Tiny Ninja goes with him!

Tiny Ninja is trying to pull him back… it’s… no!… crrrrrrrrrrrr… *The cable went out.*

Sorry, that wasn’t an intentional cliffhanger. I was outside and pulled what I thought was a gnat out of my dog’s hair, but it turned out to be an aphid with a ladybug larva clinging to its neck. They had probably fallen out of a tree when the ladybug attacked. The struggle continued as I put them on a spiral notebook to get a closer look. (For some perspective, the “cage” is part of the spiral binding, and the “pit” is one of the punched holes.) It was like a lone wolf taking down a deer, only much slower. I wasn’t sure if the larva would actually succeed because of the size differential, but unfortunately I had to go stop my dog from wandering, and the bugs had disappeared when I returned. However, I would guess that Aphid becomes a snack and Tiny Ninja transforms into Ladybug, who will continue to terrorize the aphid community. This larva was very small so it must have been recently hatched, and apparently it didn’t care that its prey was over twice its size. Eventually the larva will grow to look like this: