HONEY. 343 



Messrs. Kirby and Spence, in their interesting work on 

 Entomology, have given a description of the kind of honey- 

 dew furnished by the aphides. 



" The loves of the ants and the aphides have long been 

 celebrated ; and that there is a connection between them, 

 you may, at any time in the proper season, convince your- 

 self; for you will always find the former very busy on 

 those trees and plants on which the lattir abound ; and if 

 you examine more closely, you will discover that the object 

 of the ants, in thus attending upon the aphides, is to obtain 

 the saccharine fluid secreted by them, which may well be 

 denominated their milk. This fluid, which is scarcely infe- 

 rior to honey in sweetness, issues in limpid drops from the 

 abdomen of these insects, not only by the ordinary passage, 

 but also by two setiform tubes placed, one on each side, just 

 above it. Their sucker being inserted in the tender bark, 

 is without intermission employed in absorbing the sap, 

 which, after it has passed through their system, they keep 

 continnally discharging by these organs. When no ants 

 attend them, by a certain jerk of the body, which takes 

 place at regular intervals, they ejaculate it to a distance." 



" Mr. Knight once observed," says Bevan, " a shower of 

 honey-dew descending in innumerable small globules, near 

 one of his oak-trees, on the 1st of September ; he cut off 

 one of the branches, took it into the house, and holding it in 

 a stream of light, whichwas purposely admitted through a 

 small opening, distinctly saw the aphides ejecting the fluid 

 from their bodies with considerable force, and this accounts 

 for its being frequently found in situations where it could 

 not have arrived by the mere influence of gravitation. The 

 drops that are thus spurted out, unless interrupted by the 

 surrounding foliage, or some other interposing body, fall 

 upon the ground ; and the spots may often be observed, fof 



