I once spent several weeks photographing neighborhood aphids during the spring aphid explosion. I’ve always been really grossed out by aphids, but after staring their plump, green, alien bodies on my monitor for hours, I became (mostly) desensitized.
I learned about how braconid wasps parasitize aphids, leaving an exit wound as they leave the dried, mummified shell of the aphid. I started seeing the parasitized aphid “mummies” everywhere I looked, and I was gratified to know that the aphid population was being controlled on this mostly unseen level by amazing, tiny wasps.
One of the funnier photos I took was of aphids on the leaf of an artificial plant that was out on the sidewalk near my house. It seemed like such a sad, ironic demise for an insect– attacked and used up by a parasite, while trying to feed on a leaf that wasn’t even real.
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