國立自然科學博物館

介殼蟲會分泌蜜露供螞蟻吸食，螞蟻為了保障食物來源，則會幫忙驅離瓢蟲、寄生蜂等介殼蟲的天敵。其實蜜露是介殼蟲的排泄物，其中的大部分物質是醣類，因此帶有甜味。 照片中的介殼蟲尾部會先伸出形狀像一朵花的組織，再分泌蜜露在該組織上面，方便熱帶大頭家蟻吸食，待螞蟻吸食完畢，該組織就又縮回體內。

Soft scales would exude honeydew for ants to feed on, and in order to preserve the food source, ants in return help to chase off their natural enemies such as ladybugs and parasitic bees. In fact, honeydew is the excrement of soft scales, most of its content is sugar, so it has a sweet taste. In the photo, the soft scale’s tail sticks out a tissue shaped like a flower, and then secrete honeydew on the tissue to facilitate the feeding of pheidole megacephala (big-headed tropical ant). After the ants have finished ingesting the secretion, they will retract the tissue back into the body.

攝影日期：2018年8月15日 攝影地點：台中市大坑風景區4號步道 使用設備與條件：Olympus E-M5MarkII，光圈F16，快門1/160，ISO200，閃光燈 影像取得方式：作者本人拍攝 影像後制方式：使用FastStone Image Viewer6.0 裁剪、調整亮暗、調整對比、調整飽和度、銳化、轉JPEG檔

Date: August 15, 2018 Location: Taichung City Dakeng Scenic Area Trail 4 Equipment and conditions: Olympus E-M5MarkII, aperture F16, shutter 1/160, ISO200, flash Image acquisition method: shot by photographer Image editing: used FastStone Image Viewer6.0 to crop, adjusted brightness, contrast, saturation, and sharpness, and converted into JPEG files