Ants attack on unknown bugs

I'm a macro-noob, but when I walked past this flower in my front garden and saw this black mass of ants I thought "Cool - I'll get a shot of that!". At first I thought there were just the black ants eating something sweet in the flower, but when I looked closer I realised there were whitish smaller things there. Then I thought the ants had their larvae there.

It wasn't until I saw the shots on the screen that I realised they were some other sort of bug and the ants were eating/attacking them.

It was a bloodbath...

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"Interesting. You're afraid of insects and women. Ladybugs must render you catatonic." - Sheldon
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Leorooster wrote in post #3546500
Nice captuers! In fact, the ants are "farming" aphids (those smaller greenish bugs), protecting them on the plant they eat, and eating the honeydew that the aphids secrete.

No kidding - farming? Wow. I obviously have a lot to learn about the macro world - not just taking the photos I mean. You guys rock.

"Interesting. You're afraid of insects and women. Ladybugs must render you catatonic." - Sheldon
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