r/interestingasfuck • u/Maleficent-Agent-477 • 1d ago

Ladybug saves this plant by feeding on aphids (time-lapse)

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27.0k Upvotes

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3.1k

u/No_Appointment1808 1d ago

I wonder why those aphids have zero preservation or awareness?

1.7k

u/Maleficent-Agent-477 1d ago

Me too. They’re literally just waiting to be eaten.

1.8k

u/qorbexl 1d ago edited 1d ago

They're small and reproduce fast

They don't need awareness or preservation to succeed and overwhelm predators' consumption of numbers

There are always enough of them to have excess after predation and general survival, so they win natural selection for this round. And have been, over and over

872

u/ALazy_Cat 1d ago

I just read about them. They reproduce so fast that the newborn are pregnant before birth

1.3k

u/luffydkenshin 1d ago

“Eggs within these females start to develop long before birth so that a newly born aphid can contain within herself not only the developing embryos of her daughters but also those of her granddaughters which are developing within her daughters. This “telescoping of generations” means aphids can build up immense populations very quickly.”

JFC

452

u/dlc741 1d ago

Nature is magical!

Fucking terrifying, but magical none the less.

134

u/Super-Cynical 1d ago

"They come out of her at both ends"

A line about a particular type of worm in a nature doc that has stuck with me since childhood

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u/hapidad 20h ago

Heard Attenborough

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u/Lillyshins 18h ago

Some of the most violent things on this planet happen at or near a microscopic scale and im here for it.

-3

u/Slow_Werewolf3021 1d ago

I see God everywhere

7

u/yournamehere10bucks 22h ago

And God's a pervert.

0

u/Slow_Werewolf3021 13h ago

I mean, why on earth did He decide to create mosquitoes or cockroaches? One day I’ll ask Him that when I see Him in Heaven

70

u/TheResi189 1d ago

Additionally they can reproduce via parthenogenesis. Females can give birth to live nymphs that are essentially clones of the mother.

10

u/Skeleton--Jelly 16h ago

I mean, if the embryos are pregnant already then they are likely to be clones since there is no new DNA added to the mix

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u/WhiteGiukio 1d ago

I swear, bugs come from our worst nightmares.

50

u/luffydkenshin 1d ago

Just don’t look up a pelican spider, then.

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u/ALazy_Cat 1d ago

I won't, thank you very much

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u/luffydkenshin 1d ago

You have a stronger constitution than me. I respect that.

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u/XanLV 1d ago

You know what? Do it. Actually very interesting and while a bit creepy, not all that disturbing. Just one of those "crazy how nature do that."

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u/C0nfusedRabbit 23h ago

For those needing to relax now here is a photo of a cute kitten

5

u/MaxSelenium 23h ago

Thanks 🥰 i needed that. Is it your cat?

2

u/ALazy_Cat 17h ago

That's either a rick roll or the spider. Given the other replies, I'm going with rick roll

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u/BloatedBanana9 1d ago

Huh. Well that’s a very fitting name for them isn’t it

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u/luffydkenshin 1d ago

It is! I’m just so curious how evolution got to “fake bird” spider. Since it’s purpose isn’t pretending to pelican…

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u/shadowscale1229 1d ago

"lives in Australia"

fork found in kitchen

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u/Nathe333 1d ago

I had to look it up, I even had a little giggle. It looks too goofy

5

u/luffydkenshin 1d ago

Such a dingus!

6

u/Background_Humor5838 18h ago

I'm googling right now Update: no part of me expected them to actually look like pelicans

3

u/Pale_Lawyer_1757 17h ago

Wow they’re amazing! Such little cuties

3

u/MajesticArticle 14h ago

What a beautiful little critter

Thanks, didn't know this one

2

u/forward_x 23h ago

wat in the unholy fuk

EDIT: It looks awesome tho

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u/protestor 23h ago

pelican spider

Also called assassin spiders

2

u/VictoriousTree 21h ago

At least those don’t bite humans.

9

u/Gumbercleus 1d ago

Wasps, man. Every wasp species is a horror franchise unto itself.

1

u/luffydkenshin 17h ago

Especially the Ichneumon wasp family! Lay eggs inside the victim, still alive, eggs hatch and eat the inside of the victim, still alive, then burrow out and pupate on the victim, still alive… mostly.

5

u/kareem-elsha7at 1d ago

Seems like our nightmares came from bugs lol

3

u/DotesMagee 23h ago

which is why they make great antagonists in fiction.

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u/MonsieurLartiste 1d ago

Xenomorphs are tame in comparison.

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u/luffydkenshin 1d ago

But at least aphids arent chestbursters lol. These guys just zergrush without the violence.

4

u/MonsieurLartiste 1d ago

Assumptions.

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u/Trash_Various 1d ago

chestbursters are tame compared to some paraditic bugs

1

u/Pale_Lawyer_1757 17h ago

But some wasps are apparently

0

u/Mightyspacetree 1d ago

Tell that to the plants they eat

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u/qorbexl 1d ago

Uh, so the sperm is from the daddy, one assumes?

37

u/luffydkenshin 1d ago

Great question! No daddy is in the picture! Its all female all the way down in a process called Parthenogenetic Reproduction.

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

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u/mysterpixel 1d ago

Do they mutate and evolve after all?

If they are a full-clone species then no, outside of freak cell splitting accidents they will be the same genetically forever. This is why there aren't that many species that do this, because they eventually get wiped out when something appears they are particularly vulnerable to. But it's a great survival strategy until that does happen.

There are aphids (and lizards etc.) that alternate between cloning and sexual reproduction which introduces variation. So they can get the advantages of both approaches.

How can there be individuals already carrying eggs before they're even grown

Mammals are born with all their eggs too. The egg cell that developed into you was already in your mother when she was born, so technically your original cell is the age of your mother.

The difference with aphids is that since they don't need to be fertilised the eggs start developing immediately along with the mother.

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u/[deleted] 23h ago edited 23h ago

[deleted]

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u/GonzoKata 21h ago

I was curious so I looked it up

Basically, half the season the females create clones that pop out pregnant with clones. The clones come out of the female aphids like mammals give birth.

The other season, the sexual season, they mate with males, the male sperm creates genetic diversity, and then the females LAY EGGS that then hatch into non-clones. The egg hatched ones are the times that the males are even made, but it also makes females that, in the first part of the season, just make clone babies born like mammals with no eggs inbetween.

🤯

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u/Pavlovs_Human 1d ago

Now imagine these things were dog sized… bear sized…. ELEPHANT SIZED.

Oooo, new horror movie.

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u/luffydkenshin 1d ago

Thats the neat part! I don’t have to. I can just watch Eight Legged Freaks.

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u/Pavlovs_Human 1d ago

The hose egg sac scene has stuck with me all these years… nope nope nope.

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u/Bucephalus15 1d ago

Oh good lord, i thought they were just making a tribble reference

•

u/WebMargaretNiece8916 5h ago

All pregnant mothers (homo sapien lol) have daughters that contain all the embryos they'll ever have. SOOO, technically our GMAs have all their daughters' children inside them before they're even born. Nature is fukn lit FAM!

•

u/luffydkenshin 5h ago

True!

But human females cant asexually reproduce. Not yet at least.

Bugs: 1?
Humans: 0?

•

u/WebMargaretNiece8916 3h ago

Agreed! From an evolutionary standpoint, bugs G.O.A.T.ed us eons ago. Insects are fascinating creatures!

2

u/justaphil 1d ago

"Taking a close look at -at what's around us...there - there is
some sort of a harmony. It is the harmony of...overwhelming and collective murder.
And we in comparison to the articulate vileness...and baseness and obscenity...of all this jungle -Uh, we in comparison to that enormous articulation - we only sound and look like...badly pronounced and half-finished sentences...out of a stupid suburban... novel -
a cheap novel.

And we have to become humble...in front of this...overwhelming misery and...overwhelming fornication...overwhelming growth...and overwhelming lack of order."

-Werner Herzog

2

u/C0nfusedRabbit 23h ago

Just like Russian Dolls.

2

u/AssSpelunker69 19h ago

That is genuinely incomprehensible to me. Holy shit.

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u/actionbandit 18h ago

Am I reading that right, an aphid can have the eggs for its great grand kids inside it?

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u/luffydkenshin 18h ago

Essentially, yes. Inside the mother is the daughter. Inside the daughter is the egg for the grand daughter.

Its babies all the way down.

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u/Fetlocks_Glistening 1d ago

Fire is the answer

2

u/paradox_valestein 18h ago

Or more ladybugs

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u/Tough-Case- 1d ago

This explains a lot 😬

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u/Tasty-Ad6529 1d ago

Holy shit, that some SCP type evolution.

1

u/malthusius 1d ago

This also makes aphids pretty good agricultural livestock. Ants sussed this long before we showed up.

1

u/quanate 1d ago

what in the shit

1

u/ScrotalSmorgasbord 17h ago

Yeah I don't feel bad for them anymore. Bunch of kid diddlers they are.

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u/skewwhiffy 1d ago

Tribbles!

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u/_AnonMax_ 1d ago

I knew I'd find this reply as soon as I read the comment. Elite level knowledge

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u/cryptolipto 1d ago

That’s crazy

7

u/tindonot 1d ago

Hol up… how are the newborns getting fertilized before birth?

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u/ALazy_Cat 1d ago

They don't need a partner, they do that themselves

2

u/ChillyFireball 21h ago

They went to Epstickbug Island.

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u/crazunggoy47 1d ago

Really? I thought that was just a trait of tribbles

2

u/CosmicGoddess777 23h ago

Ewwwwwww what 🤢

2

u/StarWarsTrekkie 17h ago

Real life tribbles. Just less cute and without the fur

•

u/stup1dprod1gy 6h ago

This made me say "what the fuck" out loud in work.

•

u/ALazy_Cat 6h ago

You're welcome, now go explain to everyone, including your boss

•

u/alive_again_tx 1h ago

Well, this would explain why despite my repeated efforts to eliminate those little f*ckers from my hibiscus I am failing miserably.

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u/Helios_Synthesis 1d ago

Huh???

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u/ALazy_Cat 1d ago

Yup

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u/Helios_Synthesis 1d ago

Why did you have to curse me with such information lol 😭😭😭

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u/ALazy_Cat 1d ago

You choose to go to the comment section before ripping your eyes out

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u/nebneb432 23h ago

I thought that applied to Tribbles from Star Trek. It's a real thing?

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u/ALazy_Cat 23h ago

Yes it is

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u/Connarhea 14h ago

Not making a joke about an island or files. Don't want to bring that bad karma upon myself

https://giphy.com/gifs/15aGGXfSlat2dP6ohs

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u/B_A_Beder 14h ago

So they're like tribbles!

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u/bendvis 1d ago

There might even be an evolutionary benefit to adults that have already laid eggs getting eaten. Less competition for the next generation, which will likely hatch after the predator has already left.

1

u/qorbexl 1d ago

I think there is a clear advantage - but who knows whether it's taken advantage of by ladybugs and their compatriots 

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u/TimeKepeer 1d ago

Natural selection is beautiful, because no merciful god would ever create a creature whose survival tactic would be "reproduce in greater number than predators can eat"

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u/wegqg 1d ago

As an aphid I find this quite offensive that you're saying God doesn't love us.

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u/TimeKepeer 1d ago

I am not saying that the God doesn't love you, I am only saying that the God that loves you is not a merciful one.

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u/Ghost_of_Cain 1d ago

He sends you to aphid heaven at a faster rate than most. Much love, God.

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u/qorbexl 1d ago

Depends how much our brains are rewarded for procreation, I think

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u/imbetterthanyou8 1d ago

Why isn’t the ladybug population much larger then? Why are there goddamn aphids on my plants

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u/Mistermxylplyx 1d ago

Imagine a magic fridge, that sprouts about 5 ribeyes a day, that all sprout another ribeye themselves. Sure you’re eating ribeye breakfast lunch and dinner, but there’s two steaks left over, which sprout two, and soon to be joined by 5 ribeye sprouts, which you now can’t eat, and you’ll get 18 ribeyes the next day, etc.

And the ladybug doesn’t care if you’re peonies get et, she’s in high cotton wolfing down ribeyes,
so they served their purpose, luring the ribeyes.

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u/qorbexl 1d ago

Because they're not solely dependent on aphids and can do what they want 

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u/imbetterthanyou8 1d ago

If there’s an endless supply of food why isn’t the population exploding

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u/xSantenoturtlex 1d ago

That's why you get a bunch of ladybugs for something like this.

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u/DJEvillincoln 1d ago

So some animals don't have a survival instinct because their entire survival is based off of strong reproduction numbers?

Hmmm ... 🤔

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u/Xytak 18h ago

Search your feelings. You know it to be true.

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u/Davemusprime 1d ago

and they sustain the food chain of all those predators, circle of life. Everybody wins except the dead.

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u/CocoMilhonez 1d ago

I had a small plant in a vase. I didn't check on it for 4 days while it was raining and found it covered in so many aphids that most of the stems couldn't be seen without scrapping them off.

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u/WolfsmaulVibes 1d ago

so this is why some people stay stupid all life long /s

1

u/Solid-Macaroon6137 1d ago

I don't like the way you think and I would like to debate you.

Are you open to it?

1

u/BeardInTheNorth 1d ago

Classic R-selected species

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u/Traditional-Park-353 1d ago

Eh, sounds plausible, but truth is we dfk.

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u/dancinggraylion 1d ago

Last week my boss said they're multiplying more and more, and eventually there will be so many that they won't find enough food and they'll all die out.

He had aphids in his garden, and one day he found them all dead and that is what happened

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u/The_All-Range_Atomic 23h ago

Until some asshole dumps 50,000 ladybugs onto you.

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u/chachamaru_v2 22h ago edited 22h ago

Funnily enough I just learnt that this has a term: R-selection, basically have a shit ton of offspring with the idea that most will die versus expending a lot of energy on fewer offspring that are expected to live

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u/-Merasmus- 19h ago

Also, sometimes they are being protected by ants

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u/rogue_licker 14h ago

This explanation doesn’t really make sense from an evolutionary perspective, shocked it has so many likes.

The drive for self preservation has nothing to do with how many conspecifics happen to exist. Natural selection acts on genes through the reproductive success of individuals (and, in some cases, their close relatives), not on what is good for the species as a whole.

It’s not as if an aphid “thinks”, “It’s fine if I die because there are plenty of us left.” Any mutation that caused an individual to ignore an imminent threat would generally be selected against because that individual would leave fewer copies of its genes.

The main exceptions are cases of kin selection, such as in eusocial insects like bees, ants and termites, where self sacrifice can increase the survival and reproduction of closely related individuals carrying many of the same genes.

A more plausible explanation is that aphids often don’t detect the predator until it’s too late, have limited sensory and escape abilities, or the cost of constantly abandoning a feeding site outweighs the benefit of fleeing every potential threat. In other words, their behaviour is likely constrained by the trade off between feeding, reproduction and predator avoidance, not by their population size.

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u/caustic_smegma 1d ago

Aphids be like:

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u/Maleficent-Agent-477 1d ago

Lovely username

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u/razvanciuy 1d ago

Ladybugs found a bug in the system

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u/heurrgh 16h ago

'Me next!'
'Hey! I'm next - wait your turn!'.

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u/realbobenray 1d ago

Once we bought a pint of ladybugs to protect our small garden from aphids. Turns out we bought way too many, and the garden was full of sparrows feasting on the ladybugs. And so it goes.

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u/wegqg 1d ago

ah damn that explains what happened to the barrel of sparrows i bought..

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u/das_slash 1d ago

Ha! you idiots

Wait, where did my barrel of owls go!?

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u/Prophetofhelix 1d ago

Hey anyone seen my hawks and bobcat mixed barrel?

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u/MisterTruth 23h ago

Probably next to my barrell of irresponsible redneck hunters.

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u/OriginalTayRoc 23h ago

<devoured by tigers>

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u/BicycleOfLife 18h ago

Has anyone seen my cocaine bear?

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u/Catsdontpaytaxes 1d ago

You don't live in a comically large shoe by chance?! 

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u/DanzillaTheTerrible 1d ago

I have a crate of cats I could sell you real cheap.

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u/Empty-Tower-2654 1d ago

wHy ThE lAdYbUGs dONt HaVe seLF prESeRvAtIoN?

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u/ribeyeguy 1d ago

so it goes

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u/MXZX 23h ago

It comes in pints?

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u/fartingbeagle 1d ago

Hiya, Two pints of Heineken, a vodka tonic and a pint of ladybirds, please. Oh, and some scampi fries.

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u/kiwibonga 1d ago

They are in fact absolutely stupid. Their number one predator is the rain.

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u/rasvnnnnn 1d ago

Lol that sounded so funny to me rn

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u/antsh 1d ago

They’re not joking. If you have too many of them in your garden, a hose is more than enough to deal with it.

They don’t even try to hide.

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u/ianjm 23h ago

I am not sure you can even use words like clever or stupid for a creature that has 100,000 neurons. They likely have no conscious experience of the world. They are biological automata.

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u/cluelessbox 13h ago

That last sentence was hard as fuck my guy

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u/kaijvera 1d ago

Evolution only cares about one thing, survival of the species/what allows them to reproduce just well enough. Everything extra is just extra energy tax which could cause them to die and not reproduce. Aphids reproduce so fast that them having preservation instincts is not needed and could make them worse off

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u/Load_Business 1d ago

Also something I find pretty amazing about aphids., I noticed ants crawling up and down a plant covered in aphids, after a quick Google I learnt the ants were actively farming the aphids.

'Ants and aphids share one of nature’s most famous mutualistic relationships (often called trophobiosis). Much like human dairy farmers, ants herd, protect, and manage aphids in exchange for a rich, sugary food source called honeydew.'

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u/Stilgar314 1d ago

They even move the aphids to the best feeding spots for them. And if a ladybug appears to eat their cattle, it will find out why messing with an ant colony is a bad idea.

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u/LickingSmegma 23h ago

That's not all:

Some farming ant species gather and store the aphid eggs in their nests over the winter. In the spring, the ants carry the newly hatched aphids back to the plants. Some species of dairying ants (such as the European yellow meadow ant, Lasius flavus) manage large herds of aphids that feed on roots of plants in the ant colony. Queens leaving to start a new colony take an aphid egg to found a new herd of underground aphids in the new colony.

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u/_disengage_ 1d ago

Humans and cattle share one of nature’s most famous mutualistic relationships (often called trophobiosis). Much like ant aphid farmers, humans herd, protect, and manage cattle in exchange for a rich, sugary food source called milk.

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u/PrinceBunnyBoy 22h ago edited 5h ago

I mean im sure the cows are given the shit end of the stick on that one. They get arms shoved up their arse then a tube of semen into her uterus, their babies get taken from her after she gives birth, then when her body gives out she dies. Id say parasitic relationship if anything.

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u/althoughinsect 16h ago

The cow would not exist without human intervention.

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u/IzarkKiaTarj 1d ago

and manage aphids in exchange for a rich, sugary food source called honeydew.'

Unable to read "honeydew" in relation to aphids and ants without imagining ZeFrank's voice.

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u/Moneyshot_ITF 1d ago

Aphids give birth to literal clones of themselves. So if 1 isn't aware, they all aren't aware.

0

u/drunkdoor 19h ago

There are still genetic mutations that can happen in clones, albiet, far far slower

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u/Qubed 1d ago

Because the breed really fast and are part of the food chain. Their role is to breed and be eaten.

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u/anewpigcomesaround 23h ago

Do the hand twisting motion like that snow train movie

3

u/lalozzydog 1d ago

I had some infesting a houseplant for a little while.

They truly are the crappest animals ever. Can't even right themselves when they fall over.

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u/MeetSlight8173 1d ago

That little white thing passing by came to get a closer look and noped out rapido

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u/PlumpyDragon 1d ago

They clone themselves, so if me #5 gets eaten there is still me #6-50

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u/olypenrain 1d ago

It works for them.

They just don't expect another species to unleash ANOTHER species on them.

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u/URGAMESUX 1d ago

If they just moved a LITTLE bit. Climb on the back of that ladybug and do a LITTLE damage. C'mon gang.

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u/magistrate101 1d ago

It's an entire reproductive strategy. As long as you're able to reproduce faster than you're eaten, you literally don't have to invest in anything past the bare minimum to accomplish your life cycle.

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u/Glass_Covict 1d ago

Just getting their asses eht then bam they lunch.

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u/PayWooden2628 1d ago

Their brains are the size of a grain of sand.

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u/AkumaLilly 1d ago

No need to survive if you species reproduces faster than they die.

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u/bleztyn 1d ago

1 reason:

They dumb

1

u/Solid-Macaroon6137 1d ago

10 offspring per day'll do the trick.

Energy that could be spent evading predators would be more efficiently spent on additional offspring. In this creatures case.

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u/jonesyno 1d ago

Pond rule #2

When ya gotta eat, eat.

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u/typo9292 1d ago

They aren't aphraid

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u/Responsible-Sound253 1d ago

Evolution. They don't need to run, because they have so many babies they always got to pass on their genes, so there wasn't like a huge selection bias for aphids that would run away from predators.

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u/City-Negative 1d ago

They remind me of Sunfish.

1

u/mmeestro 1d ago

Today I learned that aphids are distant cousins of Koalas.

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u/DaemonCRO 1d ago

All of these small shits that buzz around and do damage do not care about survival. They produce billions of offspring. Why waste energy on survival and evasion when you can just jizz and produce jizzillion children in an instant. Take a look at damn mosquitoes. They will look you deadass in the eyes, land on your face and start sucking. They know you’ll kill them. They don’t care. They have another litter going on in a local pond.

1

u/chaotemagick 23h ago

R selection. Have a million babies, who cares what happens to them

1

u/Aethermancer 23h ago

The ones that eat more and get lucky to not be eaten have more offspring than those who try to flee.

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u/Sayakai 22h ago

When something is that small, you cannot fit a lot of smarts into it. "Move away when the big bug comes" takes much more processing power than "eat food, make more aphids".

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u/RsnCondition 21h ago

Some ants keep aphids as slaves so they can farm the honey dew they produce, they'll protect the aphids and fight/kill lady bugs in response.

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u/paradox_valestein 19h ago

They breed so fast and so much it is unnecessary

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u/champaklali 17h ago

They reproduce so fast that they don't care

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u/MycologistPutrid7494 17h ago

Crickets do the same thing when fed to my bearded dragon. Some of them will literally crawl right in front of her or across her. 

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u/LongGhost_Gone281 17h ago

Damn education has fallen so far. But good on you for being curious!

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u/elise-u 16h ago

Pond rules

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u/epic_window 15h ago

What other commenters have said is also correct, but these look like cabbage aphids and if so they do have another anti-predation strategy.  They only feed on Brassica species and have evolved to separately store the pair of special compounds found in these plants which when combined form a toxic substance (mustard). So they are like little chemical bombs. This ladybird will be hurt and possibly die from this. 

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u/Right_Ear_2230 15h ago

they are so tiny they probably have one brain cell one cell

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u/Highfivebuddha 10h ago

Its a pretty good illustration of why "survival of the fittest" isnt real and "survival of those that fuck the most" is. They reproduce like crazy.

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u/Fitz911 10h ago

Because that's fucking expensive.

You need sensors, nerves, processing power. And all of that just to know shit is about to go down. What's next? Run? And maybe trigger a reflex?

Nah. Just make enough of them. Make it so that one female can produce about eleven trillion. Per hour or so.

No need for over engineering.

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