The Blight Fly 
23 
The ant is especially fond of honey dew 
and is often to be seen licking the sweet 
exudation from the aphis ere it has time 
even to drop. Probably this fact has 
given rise to one of the many fairy tales 
regarding blight flies, one being that the 
ant uses them as cows, and feeds and tends 
them, etc. No actual proof of this state- 
ment has yet been discoverable, except 
the foregoing statement that they suck the 
honey-dew from the aphis. The aphides 
are certainly the subjects of extraordinary 
attention on the part of the ants. As before 
mentioned, the two little ducts connected 
with a glandular structure secrete a sweet 
saccharine matter of which ants are 
particularly fond, and the way in which 
the ants greedily suck up this syrup gives 
the idea of almost milking the aphis. The 
antennae of the ants seem to be the media 
of intercourse between the aphides and 
themselves. It is thought by some that 
a pleasant sensation of tickling is produced 
in this way, as it seems from observation 
as if the touching of the aphis by the 
antennae of the ant synchronises with the 
exudation of the sweet fluid from the 
