HONEY-DEW. 
fi eee aphides secrete, or rather excrete, a saccharine 
fluid, called honey-dew, which constitutes an import- 
ant part of the food of ants, is a fact well known to natural- 
ists. It must not be supposed, however, that this was its 
primitive use. But that it is in some way connected with 
the preservation of the tender creatures by which it is elabo- 
rated, there can exist not the slightest doubt. 
Concerning its origin and application, and the benefit 
which it secures to its authors, various opinions have been 
hazarded, but they have all been too unsatisfactory to merit 
more than a passing notice. That it was of some advantage 
to young aphides was surmised by many, but the proofs 
necessary to sustain such a surmise were unfortunately want- 
ing. It was left to the latter half of the nineteenth century 
to throw correct light upon the subject. 
Whilst engaged some few years ago in the study of the 
species that affects the blossoms of one of our gourds—the 
Cucurbita ovifera of botanists—certain phenomena were ob- 
served, which promised an easy and speedy solution of the 
problem. 
Gathered in compact masses, like companies of soldiery 
preparing for a foray, hundreds of aphides were seen, busily 
feeding, all over the flowers. There were old and young, 
not an indiscriminate mingling of ages and sizes, but an 
orderly arrangement of families, each family preceded by its 
own appropriate head. First came the very young of each 
family, only to be followed by those that were older, leaving 
the oldest of all to lead up the rear. 
