New Scientist
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It’s an insect Jekyll and Hyde. A species of aphid that often forms a mutually beneficial relationship with ants will occasionally turn on its protectors, infiltrating their nest and sucking vital fluids out of their larvae.
Many ants and aphids live together in apparent harmony: the ants protect and clean the aphids in exchange for a taste of the sweet honeydew these sap-sucking aphids excrete.
But Paracletus cimiciformis is not your typical aphid. It comes in two distinct, though genetically identical, forms: one with a rounded body and one with a flat body. Now David Martínez-Torres at the University of Valencia in Spain and his team have discovered that the two forms have very different relationships with Tetramorium semilaeve ants. Read more on newscientist.com…
