Searching our garden one evening using my Ultra Violet torch a found this lupin flower where ladybirds had been making a feast of the aphids – my wife tells me the plant was covered in aphids until the ladybirds arrived.
Below I show the somewhat messy flower in both daylight flash and UV fluorescence using the comparison slider. First is sample 1 – note how much more visible the aphids are under the UV lighting:
And sample 2 on a different stem of the plant. Again, the UV fluorescence makes the aphids stand out:
If you look closely you can see a small aphid at the end of a larger aphid. I suspect this is the ‘mother’ giving birth to the live young. Not only that, I read that the young are born pregnant. No wonder they are such prolific breeders. Below is an enlargement of the daylight image showing the ‘mother’ aphid:
It’s amazing what you can see in the garden…