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How do ants obtain honeydew from aphids?

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Two wild horses graze on tall grass in the open prairie of Theodore Roosevelt National Park, with rolling badlands visible in the background. — Feeding behaviour Wild horses graze in the Badlands of North Dakota.

Ants obtain honeydew from aphids through a specialized feeding behavior often described as "milking".1

In this mutualistic relationship, ants protect aphids from weather and natural predators, and they may even transport them to healthier plants to ensure a consistent food supply. To collect the honeydew—a sugary, sweet excretory product produced by the sap-sucking aphids—the ants stroke the aphids with their antennae. This stimulation encourages the aphids to release the honeydew, which the ants then consume as a source of nutrition.12

Some species, known as honey ants, have evolved to store this collected honeydew in the distended abdomens of specialized worker ants called repletes, allowing the colony to access the food source during times of scarcity.345