14 



Flashlights on Nature 



deficiency, so the loss to the race is by no means 

 i I reparable. " // n'v n pas d' hoiinne piarssaiie," 

 Napoleon used to say ; and the principle is even 

 more true as applied to the green-flies. If a few 

 millions die, their place is soon filled again. 



Look once more at 

 No. 6, and you will see 

 that while the tiger-like 

 enemy is engaged in 

 hoisting and devouring 

 one unfortunate aphis, 

 its neighbour below, 

 heedless of the tragedy, 

 is quietly engaged in 

 blowing off honey-dew. 

 This blowing-off of 

 honey-dew leads me on 

 direct to the very heart 

 of my subject ; for it is as 

 manufacturers of honey- 

 dew and as cows to the 

 ants that aphides base 

 their chi ^f claim to at- 

 tention, if they did not 

 produce this Turkish 

 delight of the insect world, nobody would have 

 troubled to study them so closely. Let us go on to 

 see, then, what is the origin and meaning of this 

 curious and almost unique secretion. 



If you examine the leaves of a lime-tree or a 

 rose-bush in warm summer weather you will find 



NO. 6. — TRAi;iC KNKMY \\lli> 

 DEVOURS I20 I'ER HOIK. 



