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Can I feel Schadenfreude for an insect? The blobs on stalks are eggs of a fierce aphid predator, the green lacewing. Lacewings typically attach eggs to vegetation, but the overzealous insect that laid these was frisky enough to oviposit directly on the back of a milkweed aphid.

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American


Can I feel Schadenfreude for an insect?

The blobs on stalks are eggs of a fierce aphid predator, the green lacewing. Lacewings typically attach eggs to vegetation, but the overzealous insect that laid these was frisky enough to oviposit directly on the back of a milkweed aphid.

Aphids will drop in response to threats, but this one is strung up by a stalk, waving in the breeze, and waiting for the predators to hatch.


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photo details:

Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 macro lens + 12mm Kenko extension tube

Canon EOS 6D

ISO 1600, f/10, 1/125 sec, diffuse off-camera flash

Location: Urbana, Illinois

Alex Wild is Curator of Entomology at the University of Texas at Austin, where he studies the evolutionary history of ants. In 2003 he founded a photography business as an aesthetic complement to his scientific work, and his natural history photographs appear in numerous museums, books and media outlets.

More by Alex Wild