Many aphids are drab and pretty much invisible to onlookers, unless you're a gardener in search of potential pests—aphids, which live by sucking the lifeblood of plants and can spread hideous diseases throughout the green world—or a naturalist in search of something intriguing to write about and photograph. I'm in the latter category, and as I was combing the milkweeds for signs of Monarchs in all of their Asclepias-venued life-cycle phases, I noticed the first incidences of these Milkweed Aphids, which are also sometimes called Oleander Aphids, in honor of the plant species they most often frequent in their native Europe. The tiny members of the true bug order Hemiptera were presumably brought into this country on oleanders, but Aphis nerii soon developed a taste for milkweeds and other relatives. Like all milkweed feeders, the aphids had to figure out a way to deal with the poisons carried in the Asclepias plant sap. Not only have they done so,  they also advertise their toxicity... colorfully.