alice_casiraghi's Favorites

On Buttonbush (184964421).
I took a lot of photos (but struggled with focus) because I couldn't figure out what was going on here.
I initially assumed that the mite (here) was attacking or scavenging the aphid (184964423). But then I realized that the aphid was continuing to give birth throughout the interaction! The mite ignored the offspring (184964429), which began to crawl away shortly after birth.
Sometimes the mite was at the aphid's head and sometimes towards the tip of its abdomen. Periodically the mite would yank the aphid a small distance across the leaf - maybe I was getting too close?
All kinds of possibilities went thru my mind. Was it an attack, was the mite feeding from the aphid like ants do, did it just want to keep the aphid on the plant to give birth so it would have its own aphid supply?
I watched for about 12 minutes but there was no real change in the interaction and I came no closer to understanding.
Reference materials say these mites eat aphids. If that's what is going on here, it's a slow process.