A spring-green aphid clambers over a clot of soil, busily making its way to the shelter of a forest of plants in the distance. The insect’s long legs help it lever itself over the uneven ground at surprising speed, but if you look closely at its back, you’ll see that it has a passenger: A tiny juvenile aphid, or nymph, is riding the adult cowboy-style.

This behavior, which scientists described for the first time Wednesday in Frontiers in Zoology, results in the young one reaching the safety of a host plant much faster than it could on its own small legs. But the tactic is unpopular with the adults, who do not appreciate carrying a hitchhiker.

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Aphids generally prefer to stay in their airy roosts among the foliage of their host plants, said ecologists Moshe Gish and Moshe Inbar of the University of Haifa in Israel, the paper’s authors.

The insects drop to the ground mainly when they sense serious, unavoidable danger, heralded by the plant’s trembling and the warm breath of a grazing mammal intent on devouring their home.