The thing that caught my eye about this shot deep into the crinkled curve of a cantaloupe leaf was how very red that ladybug looks.

Once the photo was downloaded, though, I saw the ants. Which means, of course, somewhere in there lives a herd of aphids, a pale clot of translucent insects sucking the juice from the plant.

They're tended by the busy ants, milkmaids who stroke the aphids' backs, then harvest a sweet liquid. So strange.