The Bugs

We released the monarchs. We were excited to watch them flutter up and away.  One of the Thirdlanders shouted, "Goodbye Kitsy!  Goodbye Bitsy!"  Turns out she had named them without telling anyone.

We read about ants yesterday. Some ants farm root aphids in special milking chambers, keeping them alive in order to milk them for their liquidy honeydew and nutritious protein.  I disagree with scientists that call this a form of mutualism. Let's face it, the aphids are getting a raw deal.  Ants known as slavemakers overpower foreign ant colonies, taking them as slaves and forcing them to work. Also, if an individual ant decides to reproduce, the other workers hold her down for a few days so that her eggs don't hatch.  Then she goes back to work.  The queen is the only reproducer, so the workers have to just deal with it.

Ants are industrious, but they do have character flaws.