{"id":1045,"date":"2013-09-16T00:45:02","date_gmt":"2013-09-16T04:45:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/?p=1045"},"modified":"2014-04-07T01:16:31","modified_gmt":"2014-04-07T05:16:31","slug":"arboretum-carpenter-ants-and-bean-aphids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/2013\/09\/arboretum-carpenter-ants-and-bean-aphids\/","title":{"rendered":"Arboretum: Carpenter Ants and Bean Aphids"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A bittersweet vine (<i>Celastrus sp.<\/i>) twists around a tree trunk in the Arboretum with tiny black creatures crawling on it.  I believe these are <a href=\"http:\/\/bugguide.net\/node\/view\/356273\">black bean aphids<\/a> (<i>Aphis fabae<\/i>).  These aphids are sucking the sap out of the vine.  While they prefer eating from the bounty of the bean family, they are known to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ct.gov\/caes\/cwp\/view.asp?a=2823&#038;q=377568\">attack bittersweet<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Like other aphids, they produce a sweet waste product called honeydew.  Ants are attracted to the honeydew and collect it, tending aphids as we do cows.  In the photo below, a black carpenter ant (<i>Camponotus pennsylvanicus<\/i>) watches over a black bean aphid, waiting for its sugary treat.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1046\" aria-labelledby=\"figcaption_attachment_1046\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"width: 810px\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/ant.jpg\" alt=\"Black carpenter ant tending black bean aphid\" width=\"800\" height=\"541\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1046\" srcset=\"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/ant.jpg 800w, http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/ant-300x202.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><figcaption id=\"figcaption_attachment_1046\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Black carpenter ant tending black bean aphid<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A bittersweet vine (Celastrus sp.) twists around a tree trunk in the Arboretum with tiny black creatures crawling on it. I believe these are black bean aphids (Aphis fabae). These aphids are sucking the sap out of the vine. While &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/2013\/09\/arboretum-carpenter-ants-and-bean-aphids\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[137,407,7,412,190,86,493],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1045"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1045"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1045\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1430,"href":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1045\/revisions\/1430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sicloot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}