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THE AMERICAN NATURALIST [Vol.XLVI 



so abundant that bees gather large stores of it, and Pro- 

 fessor Cook says that he has sold it by the barrel. 16 

 From Sevensville, Montana, a correspondent of Glean- 

 ings in Bee Culture wrote a few years ago that the honey- 

 dew had been in a continuous flow throughout the whole 

 season, and dripped on the sidewalk every night in large 

 quantities. Another bee-keeper at Dupont, Indiana, 

 states that, in 1884, his bees gathered about two tons of 

 honey-dew from the leaves of the oak, hickory, beech and 

 wild grape. But the year, 1909, was in the opinion of 

 well-informed apiarists the greatest year for honey-dew 

 ever known in America. Bee-keepers everywhere re- 

 ported a scarcity of white clover and basswood honey and 

 that the bees were storing honey-dew. Professor Surface 



I have never known a year in all my studies of entomology, and in a 

 correspondence of thousands of persons each month, during which 

 plant-lice, or aphids, have been so abundant as they have this year 

 (1909), and consequently the honey-dew was likewise unusually abun- 

 dant." 



Many tons of this sweet excretion were consumed by 

 the bees during the following winter. 



I have dwelt at some length on the collection of honey- 

 dew in order to establish beyond any question, not only 

 that domestic bees would, but that they do gather large 

 supplies of sweet substances from green leaves. If addi- 

 tional evidence could strengthen this statement it is fur- 

 nished by every apiary, where bees frequently may be 

 seen feeding on materials of every hue, or entering dark 

 supers, hive-bodies, or boxes, through narrow crevices or 

 small apertures no larger than a bee's body in search of 

 honey. Honey-bees require a great amount of stores and 

 it would be greatly to their disadvantage, if their actions 

 were dominated by bright coloration to such an extent 

 that they were prevented from obtaining food supplies 



16 Root, A. I., and Root, E. R., "The A B C and X Y Z of Bee Culture," 

 p. 273, 1910. 



"Surface, H. A.. "Sources of Honey-dew r " Gleanings in Bee Culture, 

 37, 623, 1909. 



