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What are this Midge and Ant doing?

Posted by October 14th, 2011 at 2:26 am

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Ants, Midges

Circle of Life
Location: Contra Costa County, CA
October 13, 2011 9:17 pm
Saw this guy flipping around on a leaf while hiking along the edge of a marsh. Didn’t even see the ant until I looked at the picture on my camera. I wasn’t able to stick around to see who won, but I know those ants aggressively defend their eucalyptus.
Signature: Fel

midge ant Circle of Life fel 300x197 What are this Midge and Ant doing?

MIdge and Ant relationship

Dear Fel,
We cannot imagine what the Ant is doing to the Midge.  You actually witnessed it, so you think it looked like a battle.  We sense that this is some symbiotic relationship or possibly a one sided relationship.  Perhaps this became Phoresy after the camera stopped running. 

The midge was flipping around like he was trying to get away but the ant had a good grip on him. Those eucalyptus have some sort of psyllid insect, tortoise beetles (fast little buggers), and those ants. If you touch the leaves, the ants come running so I assumed the ant was defending his territory.

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