Aphid farm

I was going to blip a nice picture of some flowers this evening. Unfortunately I got completely distracted by this fairly grotesque scene being played out on our echinops - ants doing some bizarre things with blackfly. This is the explanation which I found on the Gardeners World website:

"The ants 'farm' the aphids for their sweet, sugary secretions, called honeydew. They push the blackfly to the tips of the plants, where all the fresh, new growth is (apparently blackfly produce the sweetest honeydew from the youngest leaves)."

I'll be getting rid of all these beasties tomorrow.