SOME APHIDS MAYBE ABSORB SUNLIGHT FOR ENERGY BY USING GENES PILLAGED FROM FUNGI TO BECOME RED?
FUCKIN WHAAAAT
@bogleech is it cool to tag you for the purpose of duuudeholy shit have you heard of this
What!!! Are they doing dont they understand that that’s SILLY
A lot of people have probably heard of the sea slugs that photosynthesize, but what those actually do is just keep pieces of the algae they eat, moving the chloroplasts to their own tissues where they can keep making food from the sun.
These aphids are technically the real actual first animal found to photosynthesize because they permanently encoded the ability into their DNA as a species.
Its also important to understand FUNGI ARENT PLANTS AND DONT DO THIS THEMSELVES. The aphids are believed to have obtained the genes for red pigment from fungus and are using that to eat sunlight. That doesn’t mean the original fungus was using it for that. Fungi rather famously do not do that; the only way fungi feed from sunlight, like the sea slugs, it by partnering with algae.
