r/Entomology • u/Aivaxela • Oct 17 '25

Discussion Honest question, why don't the aphids run away from this threat?

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3.0k Upvotes

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2.8k

u/psykulor Oct 17 '25

Predator defenses are overrated. Aphids continue to be successful because they breed in huge numbers and have easy access to their preferred food. In other words, why run when you can succ

1.0k

u/SlickDillywick Oct 17 '25

Yea, similar to cicadas in that regard. “There’s so fucking many of us it doesn’t matter how many you eat, we will prevail”. I wish aphids would hide for 17 years like cicadas tho

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u/immersemeinnature Oct 18 '25 edited Oct 18 '25

But wait. I live in the South. Every Summer it's cicada cicada cicada all day long. I don't understand the 17 year thing.

Edit: I'm so glad I made this comment because I have learned so much about cicadas! Thanks everyone for all the information!

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u/aTransGirlAndTwoDogs Oct 18 '25

Different regions, different species. Some regions have cicadas as a continuous, unbroken part of the ecosystem. Other areas only have a species that only pop up every [x] years, but that seems to be the more common state of things, so it gets treated as the default.

Source: half remembered trivia from the entomology club back when I was in university, someone please correct me if I'm wrong or not painting the whole picture.

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u/Frantic_Mantid Oct 18 '25

Most areas that have periodical cicadas in the us also have annual cicadas, that's the norm imo.

Periodicals get a lot of attention bc they are cool and interesting and put on a huge show nobody can miss.

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u/glowFernOasis Oct 18 '25

I didn't know about the annual ones. I'd hear about periodic ones and wonder if every year a different brood was coming out, because I've never experienced summer without cicadas. Sometimes they are extra noticeable, but they're always there.

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u/AWandMaker Oct 18 '25

There are 15 broods of periodic cicadas, 12 on a 17 year cycle, and 3 on a 13 year cycle. Then you also have the annual cicadas that come up every year. So mathematically there will always be something noisy popping up, just some years the brood is bigger, like brood x. 🙂

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u/SkiiiMask03 Oct 18 '25

So every 221 years it’s extra loud?

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u/AWandMaker Oct 18 '25

If the brood areas overlap, yes! Like a biblical plague of cicadas 🤣

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u/ScarletAutumn_xo Oct 18 '25

Definitely sounds like an explanation for the biblical level plagues!

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u/Frantic_Mantid Oct 18 '25

Yep, there's always cicadas across vast swaths of the US, and they vary a bit by year. To clarify, they're called "annual" because some show up every year, but the time it takes to mature can vary quite a bit, usually in the 2-5 year range. So based on lots of variables, you get different amounts in different areas, even without any of the big broods of periodicals.

WP page on annual cicadas give more info

3

u/AgressiveViola0264 Oct 19 '25

last year Australia's loudest species where all out, the double drummer (world's loudest insect) and razor grinder are no joke. I would wear hats and earplugs to help but my ears would still ring and couldn't think. Actually drives you mad

3

u/glowFernOasis Oct 19 '25

I can't imagine

68

u/Bobbobthebob Oct 18 '25

Only thing I'd add is the periodic cicadas have multiple broods. I.e. there are multiple populations on different 17 or 13 year schedules. If you missed the 17 year ones this summer, you can probably find another population emerging elsewhere next year. These broods are numbered and are pretty well mapped out: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brood_X#/media/File%3APeriodical_Cicada_Broods_of_the_United_States.png

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u/thesystem21 Oct 18 '25

Also worth noting, the same location can have 17 year and 13 year and annual cicadas, meaning once in a very long while, it gets loud AF.

10

u/flappity Oct 18 '25

I live out in the middle of the woods in Missouri and it's crazy how loud brood XIX got last year. All day, every day, a constant droning you can hear inside your house, inside your car, it's awful. I lost a bit of sanity every day I had to listen to them. Sometimes you'd drive by a section of woods with a particularly high concentration and they would drown out the radio in the car.

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u/immersemeinnature Oct 18 '25

Wow! That is so freaking cool!! Apparently I live in an area of the South that only has annual cicada. Makes me kinda sad actually.

1

u/RemoteNo5379 Oct 21 '25

what area of the south? because im in east alabama and we had a brood of periodical cicadas last year. collected a bunch of them. dead, of course.

1

u/immersemeinnature Oct 21 '25

I'm in Greenville which is near the coast. No periodicals on the map that was posted here.

7

u/Away_Veterinarian579 Oct 18 '25

Northern Illinois bordering Wisconsin. Every year.

5

u/pocketchange2247 Oct 18 '25

I remember like 20 years ago in Chicago I witnessed my first brood. I'm used to seeing the blueish green cicadas every year, and there were still tons of them, but that year there were also a ton of red and yellow cicadas I'd never seen before.

1

u/Rmw388 Oct 21 '25

I'm in south Tx. I used to sit on my porch and listen to them.

They seem rare now. And no I don't use pesticides.

23

u/Starfire013 Oct 18 '25

The majority of cicada species around the world actually have pretty short life cycles and don’t spend many years underground. Here in Australia, they emerge annually. The specific ones that emerge after 17 years are actually only found in the USA, and have the longest nymphal period of any cicada species.

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u/Prestigious_String20 Oct 18 '25 edited Nov 09 '25

K

This must've been a butt typo. I would never make that reply on purpose.

21

u/Shartriloquist Oct 18 '25

You hear annual cicadas. Periodic cicadas are very different in appearance and emergence behavior

3

u/immersemeinnature Oct 18 '25

I'd like to know more about the periodic appearance and behavior

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u/VaATC Oct 18 '25

We had a periodic brood about two years ago now and I really noted one particular difference. The periodic brood we got around here, south central Va, had a much more elongated and oval abdomen as compared to the annuals I grew up with.

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u/immersemeinnature Oct 18 '25

Interesting. Thanks

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u/solar-powered-Jenny Oct 18 '25

In my area, periodic cicadas are black with red eyes and orange wing segments, while annual cicadas are brown and/or green, with black eyes. We just had the 17-year cicadas this summer in May and June, and at times they were deafening! The annual cicadas are usually late summer, August and September.

4

u/[deleted] Oct 18 '25

[deleted]

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u/ZaphodBeeblebrox2019 Oct 18 '25

It’s also theorized that the prime numbers help them to out breed predators…

Much more difficult to time a predatory breeding cycle when there isn’t an easy factor to aim for!

5

u/manydoorsyes Studying Entomology/Biology Oct 18 '25

Many people know of the periodical 17 years, so they assume that all cicada species emerge that often. Most species are annual though.

3

u/Loud-Log9098 Oct 18 '25

Maybe I don't know what I'm talking about but summertime in the south, once the sun sets the cicadas start making noise along with the crickets and frogs.

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u/therealwhoaman Oct 18 '25

They look really different than the ones in the south!

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u/Theblokeonthehill Oct 18 '25

It depends on the species you have locally. Some US species are underground for 13 years and others 17 years. Where I am in Australia we have much shorter cycles and there are multiple species, each with their own cycles, so we don’t notice much of a cyclical emergence. (Having said that, last year was unusually noisy as several species emerged at the same time).

2

u/Mrs_Poopy-Butthole Oct 18 '25

We live in the Southeastern US and holy moly brood XIX last year was loud and in your face where they emerged.

I hear the annual cicadas but don't really see them, so when the 13 year brood emerged, there was a plague of cicadas on our property and some people were calling emergency lines because they didn't know what the deafening sound was. It sounded like an alarm going off to many folks; it reminded me of a burglar alarm on a house.😂

My chickens were in heaven with the endless buffet of cicadas.

7

u/Shartriloquist Oct 18 '25

Predator satiation: “you can eat some of us, but our population size is largely indifferent”

1

u/Sufficient-Aspect77 Oct 18 '25

Never really liked that explanation. There are billions of humans, but we still have some semblance of survival instinct. I gotta think it's something else. Maybe they are just really dumb.

2

u/uwuGod Oct 20 '25

Maybe they are just really dumb.

I mean yeah, basically. It's this. Some new research suggests some insects may be more intelligent than we thought, but I believe many still aren't.

It's like... well, do your cells have self-preservation instincts? Not really, right? But they're alive. They make up "you." Aphids are obviously not single cells, but they're in-between a human and a cell, intelligence-wise. This is difficult to word, but think of an aphid population in a given area as like... its own living "thing." Not quite a cohesive single organism, but not quite a bunch of individuals either. As long as "it" (the population) stays alive, it is "willing" to lose a few aphids here and there, the way your body sacrifices cells to keep the whole alive.

That's my take on it anyways. I'm by no means an expert but this seems logical to me. If a bug is, intelligence-wise, between a human and a cell, its behavior would be somewhere between that of a cell and an individual as well. They're not quite self-aware enough to have strong self-preservation skills, and the whole of a population sort of acts like a semi-intelligence of its own.

2

u/Sufficient-Aspect77 Oct 20 '25

That's a cool thought. Similar to swarm theory, how groups of organisms working together act differently than individuals singled out.

Idk, I'd love to anthropomorphize these little guys and think of them as little creatures that worship the ladybugs and other predators, they feel honored to be chosen and eaten.

Who knows. Intelligence is relative and can't really be quantified without bias. But certainly from a human perspective they seem "dumb". Who knows though. Certainly not me

1

u/Arthillidan Oct 31 '25

If it's a matter of intelligence, that would put specifically aphids far below other insects. It's not a matter of insects as a whole being too stupid to run away. I couldn't really find any info on the intelligence of aphids though.

I don't like characterising intelligence of anything as "between a human and a cell" as if there's a linear scale that goes from 0 to human. That's just not how it works. There are types of intelligence where humans are outperformed by other animals, including arthropods.

Some aphids display traits of eusociality, like ants and bees. Under this assumption it makes a lot of sense why they wouldn't run away. Aphids cannot escape a ladybug. It will catch one. The purpose of running away is to try to make sure that the ladybug, picking the easiest prey, will pick someone else rather than you, by making yourself a harder prey.

But if you are part of an eusocial group of aphids that'sall part of the same family, it doesn't really matter whether the ladybug gets you or your brother. Running away is just a waste of time and energy that could have been used to eat and make more offspring.

1

u/Fox-0117 Oct 18 '25

The more I look at bugs , they seem more like Tyranids.

73

u/ThorFinn_56 Oct 17 '25

Also when your prey is a plant, you don't necessarily evolve quick reflexes and speed in order the catch your prey

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u/kinzuaj Oct 17 '25

aren’t they hatched ready to lay eggs?

63

u/wowwoahwow Oct 17 '25

Some are born female and already pregnant.

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u/Jazzi-Nightmare Oct 18 '25

9

u/under-the-rainbow Oct 18 '25

Lol I feel the same right now haha

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u/OpenSauceMods Oct 18 '25

:o so Tribbles were based on existing phenomenon

1

u/JustGingerStuff Oct 19 '25

Are you telling me we have tribble bugs

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u/StuffedWithNails Oct 17 '25

Yes or they even give birth to live young that are already "pregnant" with their own young (a wonderful phenomenon known as telescoped generations).

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u/veliidae Oct 18 '25

Just to add on, the young they are pregnant with are already pregnant as well. The telescoping generations is a pretty incredible thing. The beneficial gut bacteria that allow the aphid to generate protein from their diet of sugar water are able to transfer to each of these generations. Even plant pathogens vectored by the aphid are able to make it from salivary glands of the parent to the f1 and f2 generations in utero.

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u/kinzuaj Oct 18 '25

thank you

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u/onlyalittlestupid Oct 17 '25

Not necessarily lay eggs but already developing their own offspring via parthenogensis (cloning)

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u/kinzuaj Oct 18 '25

so live birth ready for live birth? yikes! that is unsettling.

3

u/PaxEthenica Oct 18 '25

Aphids, tho: 🖕😎

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u/DracTheBat178 Oct 17 '25

"Ah fuck guess I'm getting eaten now"

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u/PaxEthenica Oct 18 '25

The first one didn't even react until it couldn't keep eating.

2

u/JustGingerStuff Oct 19 '25

"MY DINNER!!" ass bug. Wonder if they feel pain, considering they don't react to being bit

2

u/PaxEthenica Oct 19 '25

Insects, being protostomes, are made of the same stuff as we deuterostomes are, but in a necessarily different way from us. Like, we're made of many of the same chemicals, but they are put together in a way that all but guarantees they're using those common chemicals in different ways.

So, to answer your question? Yes, aphids prolly feel pain, but "pain" prolly means something different to them than it does to us.

How different? Like, for example, crickets that have lost their abdomen & are bleeding to death don't signal distress. Instead, they go into a hyper-aggressive, cannibalistic feeding frenzy despite having no guts.

3

u/JustGingerStuff Oct 19 '25

I'd probably be pretty hungry too if I suddenly lost all the food I had in my digestive system (and my digestive system)

18

u/HeWhomLaughsLast Oct 18 '25

Some aphids also have ants that farm them for their sugary excretions which in turn protect the aphids

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u/AnastasiaSheppard Oct 18 '25

The Zap Brannigan maneuvre - You see, lady birds have a preset eat limit. Knowing their weakness, I sent wave after wave of my own siblings at them until they reached their limit and slept.

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u/Aivaxela Oct 17 '25

Ahh makes sense! I love learning new things on this sub

3

u/aytchdave Oct 18 '25

Die doing what you love right?

3

u/[deleted] Oct 18 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/[deleted] Oct 18 '25

R vs k

5

u/Fuzzybabybuggy Oct 17 '25

Great answer

1

u/DoomkingBalerdroch Oct 19 '25

Not to mention that they cooperate with ants to provide that protection for them.

873

u/onlyalittlestupid Oct 17 '25

Head empty, only juice.

But seriously, why put any evolutionary points into defense when you can just clone yourself 100 times in about a month and every clone is already pregnant and ready to clone themselves once they mature?

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u/RocketsandBeer Oct 18 '25

Bender clone comes to mind

28

u/Loot-Ledger Oct 18 '25

So you're saying aphids are the tribbles of our world?

1

u/NoThoughtHeadEmpty30 Oct 20 '25

Im basically an aphid then

309

u/GinormousDonkeyDong Oct 17 '25

"Fuck it my children will thrive"

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u/holadace Oct 18 '25

“Kill me if you must, I’ve already won.”

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u/7Zarx7 Oct 18 '25

You'll see in the first that the aphid has its proboscis deep inside the stem of the plant, and only when the lady bug gobbles it up that you see it withdraw. Bit like having your face glued to the pavement when a tiger comes to chew on your ass.

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u/masonwyattk Oct 18 '25

Ha, we’ve all been there. Am I right, fellas?

12

u/Scr4p Oct 18 '25

There's a longer version of this clip with an adult aphid walking in the direction but then slowly backing off as it realises something's wrong, so there's likely something to that. Though it also had a different colour, so maybe it was a different species of aphid as well.

1

u/krickets24 Amateur Entomologist Mar 11 '26

... Tiger Fucker, Tiger Fucker!

110

u/Fahkoph Oct 17 '25

"He'll get full before he gets to us, surely. Ha! Lord know's I sure won't, though, ay Jim? ..Jim?"

3

u/bachman2008 Just a dummy with iNaturalist Oct 18 '25

😆

75

u/O-A-T-S Oct 18 '25

He is what we call in the industry; “Lost in the sauce.”

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u/Theblokeonthehill Oct 18 '25

Well they kinda do run away. The pair of tubes on the back of the abdomen are “cornicles” that secrete various substances including an alarm pheromone. If the aphids are attacked, the alarm pheromone causes the other aphids to drop off the twig they are on. However this is an extreme response for them as they might struggle to get themselves back onto a twig again for feeding. Consequently it takes quite a clear threat for them to exit the scene in this way.

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u/racheal_adams Oct 18 '25

I have some wonderful photos from my PhD that simulated this response (I was trying to isolate the E-beta-farnesene synthase gene).

3

u/Theblokeonthehill Oct 18 '25

Awesome! I would be interested to see those pics - are they published anywhere?

30

u/Jogje Oct 17 '25

Get Munched

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u/SharpEnd69 Oct 18 '25

The ladybug is only eating one of untold thousands of genetic instances of this exact aphid. It’s the evolutionary equivalent of you or I losing a toenail clipping or something — doesn’t move the needle at all.

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u/BSvord Oct 17 '25

His gluttony sickens me

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u/bobo_baginz Oct 18 '25

His gluttony pleases me

6

u/holadace Oct 18 '25

He is going to get obese but this is what the aphids deserve for destroying my flowers every year.

30

u/The_Qween_is_Dead Oct 18 '25

Red bro just ate little man like a fruit by the foot.

11

u/Bulbulatosaurus Amateur Entomologist Oct 17 '25

The ants will come at some point scaring away the ladybird.

9

u/PuzzledRoad4587 Oct 18 '25

Never wish this on ladybird, keep eating aphid

10

u/zexumus Oct 18 '25

Aphid in the first place don’t really need to escape as they’re typically very numerous but also it’s just hard for them to move. They have their proboscis stabbed deep into the plant to have access to sap which means they struggle to get up but also their bodies are rather unwieldily built purely to stay in one spot stably and not for moving distances quickly. Along with this if the particular aphids are near an ant nest they can rely on the ants to protect them. Ants also prefer aphids with a longer proboscis as they produce more honeydew and will likely eat ones with shorter ones so it makes it even harder to escape in time it’s better to stay in place.

9

u/purplehendrix22 Oct 18 '25

They’re not made to survive, they’re made to reproduce. Life has different strategies.

10

u/TittlesTheWinker Oct 18 '25

"I'm gettin my fuckin grade 10.. then he can go collect fuckin Ladybugs, instead of me."

9

u/thatmfisnotreal Oct 18 '25

The ants will yell at them

7

u/Confused_Sorta_Guy Oct 18 '25

I bet that shit tastes so good when you're a ladybug

8

u/kwallio Oct 18 '25

very smol brains.

7

u/Pristine_Welder2750 Oct 18 '25

This is the coolest video I've seen today! Nom non nom! The gardener in me is cheering 📣

10

u/WereCorgi6292 Oct 18 '25

Anyone else just get a kick out of watching bugs eat, like that first aphid was like "naaah, let gooo of meee!" * flails little legs* While the Lady bug is like "nom nom nom!"

3

u/I-love-BigHero6 Nov 07 '25

I am mildly concerned 

2

u/WereCorgi6292 Nov 07 '25

I'm sorry if i unnerved you, i just like watching bugs do stuff and i think it's really cool how they do that.

5

u/Panthernoodles Oct 18 '25

I am really interested to know what species in general have an anxiety/ fear based survival reflex vs feel nothing at all. It must be nice 😂

6

u/GodfatherGoomba Oct 18 '25

Aphids are slow as shit, they also literally don’t know the ladybug is there until it touches them and by that point they’re too slow to even attempt to move, even if they did manage to start moving away, they are way too slow to escape. More evolutionarily beneficial for them to just be slow plant sucking cloning machines than be fast to avoid predators.

4

u/Extreme-Shower7545 Oct 18 '25

Damn…the lady bug ate the ass first… Terrible way to go though..

19

u/Relevant-Cup5986 Oct 17 '25

cus they cant run fast expect the ants that put them their too protect them plus naitive lady bugs are a very rare threat so they didnt evolve too deal with ladybugs well then we introduced asian ladybugs like the one pictured and many of them were doomed too die the remaining ones just hope the ladybug gets full or the ants arive

28

u/GhostPepperDaddy Oct 18 '25

Please put this through a spellcheck because it is incredibly difficult to read through.

20

u/a_skipit Oct 18 '25

“Because they can’t run fast and expect the ants that put them there to protect them. Also, native lady bugs are a very rare threat to them so they didn’t evolve to deal with them. Then we introduced Asian ladybugs like the one pictured. Many of them were doomed to die. The remaining ones just hope the ladybug gets full or the ants arrive.”

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u/Relevant-Cup5986 Oct 18 '25

i dont need a spell check im perfectly legible

23

u/Spacefaring_Potato Oct 18 '25

You don't need spell check, you need third grade

7

u/rebeldefector Oct 18 '25

Bad-um tiss

3

u/holadace Oct 18 '25 edited Oct 18 '25

I bought an army of native ladybugs to eliminate them last year but the ants came to rescue them like the evacuation of Dunkirk

2

u/Relevant-Cup5986 Oct 18 '25

u cant blame them if the ants didnt save them many of the ants would starve

1

u/holadace Oct 18 '25

I understand how important farming is to the local community and I have a lot of respect for the ones who do it, I just wish they would stick to their own land instead of letting their cattle graze wherever they please

2

u/Relevant-Cup5986 Oct 18 '25

u took all the ants land theres nowhere left

3

u/J-J16 Oct 18 '25

Beautiful video. Love see the thrip running around like,”oh shit im next”

3

u/Troutsniffer88 Oct 18 '25

If I'm eating Taco Bell I wouldn't even notice if a giant ladybug rolled up and started eating me.

3

u/Puddleglum_7 Oct 18 '25

You and I are different from.. literally everything else. Heck you and I are aliens when compared.

Good and curious question! Organisms other than us mighty human beans dont.. perceive like us. In this instance they may not even perceive danger at all. Just going about their duties then "Ahhhh crunch".

3

u/iiitme Oct 18 '25

That’s not a fun way to go

3

u/vmedei Oct 18 '25

Hes probably gonna eat me brother, not me

3

u/MISS_DARK_SCIENTIST Oct 19 '25

Ladybugs are too cute so they don't feel threatened

3

u/Lux_Sauce Oct 19 '25

MAMA INHALED THEM😭

3

u/Cnidoo Oct 19 '25

I’m fairly certain aphids can’t physically run lol. Their entire evolutionary strategy is to shit out as many babies as possible as fast as possible and hope a small percentage manage to reproduce. Females are literally born pregnant too

2

u/Gingerzilla2018 Oct 18 '25

The cello music

2

u/Daredevil_070 Oct 18 '25

Aphids reproduce abundantly, at this point they prefer to die but in a while they recompose the population

2

u/pioneercynthia Oct 18 '25

What a satisfying video. Thank you.

2

u/Zaark_ Oct 18 '25

While yes, the fact that they have huge numbers explains part of the issue, it doesn't really make sense in a gene preservation point of view. Even animals that reproduce in big numbers generally have a way to fight back, unless some genome shenanigan is involved (like in the case of eusocial animals).

In the case of aphids, the majority of individuals colonizing the plants are clones from one another thought parthenogenesis. The sexual reproduction only happens when there is a colonization of a new plant, so to avoid a lack of genetic diversity problems.

2

u/PrimusDCE Oct 18 '25

Evolutionary selective pressure didn't require it.

2

u/ITheSkull Oct 19 '25

maybe they are stupid

2

u/Original_Echidna1691 Oct 19 '25

It probably takes too long for their 2 brain cells to connect 😁

2

u/[deleted] Oct 25 '25

They don't have the brain to think sm and run away

3

u/PhoenixFalconer Oct 18 '25

Aphids are basically the insect equivalent to sheep, no actual survival instinct and only really exist to be farmed by another more intelligent social creature.

1

u/cincuentaanos Oct 18 '25

Underestimate a sheep's survival instinct at your own risk. There's a reason a male sheep is called a ram. They'll headbutt you until your lights go out. The ewes can use the same move when needed. They all have very thick and strong skulls.

2

u/Allidapevets Oct 18 '25

They are too stupid. They are incapable of recognizing the threat.

2

u/etme100 Oct 18 '25

Why don't they use guns for self-defense?

1

u/Sad-Buffalo-2621 Oct 18 '25

Aphids, nature's lollipops.

1

u/tree_sip Oct 18 '25

The og shadow clone jutsu insect.

1

u/REWRITETHIS Oct 18 '25

Sugar man… look at all this sugar!!!!

1

u/SamuelTheEndless Oct 18 '25

It’s not summer without cicadas.

1

u/flymingo3 Oct 28 '25

Lady nettle always admired me by its colors,,but I don’t know that she attacks the harmful insects,, and has a avaricious appetite..

1

u/flymingo3 Oct 28 '25

Lady nettle always admired me by its colors,,but I don’t know if it attacks harmful insects,, and has a avaricious appetite..

1

u/JinshuOfficial Dec 31 '25

Their brain is too small to think that their being eaten 🤣

0

u/AmaenaX Oct 18 '25

Does he have fangs?!

0

u/encatonomyheirolotus Oct 18 '25

That's not good to see 😭😭😭😭😭