The Blight Fly 
25 
find it there, as it is asserted that the 
aphides, on whose saccharine secretion 
ants chiefly subsist in inclement weather, 
become torpid at exactly the same low 
temperature as the ants themselves. 
Again, it must be pointed out that the 
aphides secrete this sweetened fluid as a 
result of sucking the juices from trees and 
shrubs, and it is as difficult to believe that 
ants could continue to feed these insects 
with food necessary for the secretion of 
these juices, as it is to believe that the 
insect could secrete anything when not in 
receipt of any food at all. The whole idea 
is very pretty, but needs substantiation 
before it can be chronicled as fact. 
What a lot of attempts you have 
made, probably, to remove that unsightly 
mass from some of the shoots on your 
rambler roses. You have passed that 
delicate bud between your forefinger and 
thumb. You have tried washing them 
off with water. You have even requisi- 
tioned a fine brush and tried to do away 
with the objectionable little colony, and 
yet there are a few left, and perhaps when 
you looked again in a few days’ time, lo 
3— (2267) 
