Bees and Honey-Dew

Abstract

NEAR here is an avenue of alternate beech and oak trees, and, in walking through it, my attention has lately been drawn to a loud humming in the beeches, similar to that heard in lime trees when in flower, while the oaks are silent. The sound is, I find, produced from bees in search of the Aphis secretions on the leaves of the beeches, the under sides of which are sticky with the substance. The bees appear to be all of one type—a small size of the large humble-bee—with a white tail. They never settle on the under sides of the leaves direct, but just on the margins, and then creep underneath, when, after running about and exhausting the supply, they fly off to another leaf, exact1y as if they were visiting flowers. The 1eaves of the oaks are clean, and have no “honey-dew” on them.