While I was in the process of photographing the leaf hopper (Graphocephala fennahi) in my last posting see here I noticed that a small blob of clear liquid suddenly appeared on the leaf a few inches from the hopper.
I guessed it must have come from the hopper but didn't know where from. Anyway I did a bit of Googling and found out that as it is feeding the leaf hopper produces "honeydew" rather like an aphid.
Well I went back to the same location determined to photograph the production of honeydew. I waited till I had a hopper with it's rear end in clear view and watched. Sure enough a tiny blob of clear liquid appeared for a split second then vanished. It was obviously squirting (or flicking) it, but it all happened too quickly to follow by eye. The blob of honeydew was only visible on the hopper's tail for a fraction of a second - and then it was gone.
I took 48 images of the tail as quickly as the Nikon D80 would permit and managed to get 2 frames with the honeydew on the tail. I had hoped to get a pic of the honeydew "in flight" but no luck this time. I'm going to try again.
Anyway here are the pics (note the scale bar on pic2):
Nikon D80, ISO 200, (pic1) 1/200s @f/14, (pics 2 and 3) 1/250s @f/14
Bruce

*Note the scale bar

