20 HONEYDEW. 



currant (Lecanium coryli, Linn.). In May these 

 insects secreted enormous quantities of honeydew, 

 which immediately became attractive to insects, but 

 more especially so to the wasps. 



Ants are also attracted by the honeydew, and in 

 greenhouses it is no uncommon occurrence to find them 

 swarming over plants infested with Coccids, their sole 

 object being apparently to collect the sweet secretion 

 which may have fallen upon the leaves. " Mealy bug " 

 (Dactylopius, spp.) is so frequently attended by ants, 

 that in the minds of the gardener the two insects arc 

 generally associated. It is well known, however, that 

 the ants are not directly destructive to the foliage of 

 plants, but they are credited with carrying the " bug " 

 to other plants, thereby spreading the infestation over 

 larger areas than the Coccids would of themselves. I 

 have never seen ants voluntarily carry "mealy bug" 

 from place to place, but I must admit it is quite pos- 

 sible they may inadvertently do so, and this without 

 any serious impediment to their progress, the larvae of 

 the Coccids being so minute that they could easily 

 attach themselves to the legs or body of the ants, and 

 I have little doubt that this sometimes happens. 



I think it is tolerably certain that ants also extract 

 the honeydew direct from the bodies of the Coccids, 

 and in 1898 I gave the following evidence in support 

 of this : * 



" During the year 1890 a naturalist friend called my 

 attention to a colony of ants which he said were con- 

 stantly visiting some 'American blight' on his apple 

 trees, evidently for the purpose of obtaining from them 

 ' honeydew ' or other liquid, which he said he had 

 seen them extract on one or two occasions. On visit- 

 ing the locality, the so-called ' American blight ' 

 proved to be a species of Pseudococcus, and the ants 

 the common Formica flava. There were very many of 

 the Coccids, all adult females, just about to construct 

 their ovisacs ; these were visited by a variable number 



* ' Entomologist's Monthly Magazine,' 1893, p. 78. 



