22 Insect Life : Its Why and Wherefore 
out, a process which ends in the mutilation of 
the flower bud and makes the plant both look 
and feel to the touch dirty and unpleasant. 
Honey-dew, which most of us have 
heard of, and also seen, is caused by 
aphides. On many trees, but especially 
perhaps upon the lime tree, may this 
sugary deposit be seen. These insects 
crowd themselves upon the tree and set 
to work to suck its juices. These juices 
then become in some mysterious way 
transmuted within the body of the aphis 
into a sweet syrup, which then exudes 
from its body through little tubes situate 
on the upper part of the abdomen. Quite 
a moderately powerful magnifying glass 
will show you, if you care to pluck a leaf 
so covered, these tubes at work. The 
result upon the tree is not a pleasant one. 
The leaves have a dark varnished glaze 
upon them and are very sticky and un- 
pleasant to the touch, and when this sweet- 
producing work is in full progress the tree 
becomes the rendezvous of nearly every 
species of sweet-loving insect that can 
either fly or crawl upwards, even including 
the honey bee. 
