Virgin Mothers – The Aphid and the Food Chain

Saturday 6 August 2016

Aphids may be the bottom of the food chain but if they were to suddenly disappear so, quite likely, would a host of other species. One of the more unusual aspects of the life of the aphid is that (apart from a handful of species) are all female. This means that reproduction is parthenogenetic and viviparous. That means that growth and development of the embryo happens without fertilization. It also means that the embryo develops inside the body – in fact the females are born with them.

You can see this happening in the above video, an amazing piece of work by John Dunstan. You will also get to see some of the aphid’s many enemies as well as its sometime caretaker, the ant. The camera work here is worthy of a BBC documentary – I was particularly struck by the shots of the insects struggling with single drops of water. Who would have thought that something that is wet to us could be downright sticky to our much smaller neighbors?

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