Pollination - it's a risky business! For every insect that has developed a flower-visiting habit over the millennia, like this honey bee (Apis mellifera) on goldenrod, there exists another insect (or spider) that has evolved to take advantage of them, like this jagged ambush bug (genus Phymata). Here, the latter has grabbed the former by its 'tongue' (ouch!) and stabbed it in the neck with its spear-like mouthparts in order to inject it with chemical compounds that will paralyze it and dissolve its innards into a nutritious honey bee smoothie.
A pair of odorous house ants, Tapinoma sessile, tends to a colony of green aphids on the underside of a leaf (Iowa, USA).
Widefooted Treehopper, Campylenchia latipes (Iowa, USA).
