Unless I find something particularly noteworthy, this might be my last venture into the confusing world of aphids and their parasites, at least for the winter months. You might remember my post about Aphid mummies on 26 September. Well, the tiny creature pictured below is also an aphid mummy and, thanks to my local expert, I can identify this as a nymph of the aphid Drepanosiphum platanoidis that has been parasitised by one of the Aphelinus species of parasitic wasps. Within its now-blackened body, a wasp larva has been eating its host, will pupate and eventually emerge as an adult wasp. (Perhaps I should have saved this post until 31 October as it has something of the Halloween / zombie / walking dead feel to it.)