Exploding Aphids Plaster Holes in Their Home With Bodily Fluids
In an extreme version of the clotting process, the bugs suicidally erupt to save their nest.
If you’ve ever complained about DIY home repairs, spare a thought for the colonial aphid, Nipponaphis monzeni, for whom the task of fixing the house can be spectacularly fatal. It fixes holes in its nest by suicidally erupting and, in its death throes, plastering its bodily fluids over the openings.
Each of these aphids is a white bead, just half a millimeter across. In large numbers, they can compel Japanese trees to form large, hollow spheres called galls—roomy mansions in which hundreds or thousands of them can live. Like
