No, not me. I don’t dance, or at least rarely. I wobbled back and forth long in the past to satisfy my future wife a time or two, and I suppose there were brief parents of the groom dances at our sons’ weddings.

But, rather than discussing my lack of social skills, today’s dance topic is the aptly named boogie woogie aphid, less appropriately but accurately called the beech blight aphid. I’ve had the pleasure of witnessing the aphids a time or two in local forests, but fortunately not on the handful of beeches in the garden.

The aphid does not seem to inflict serious damage to large beeches despite their abundance, but the hiker must stop to enjoy nature’s show. Typically, the aphid exudes honeydew that turns black on the trunk and exposed roots. I can still see evidence of last year’s mold, even though the aphids have moved on to other trees.

As I move away, the dance stops. Certainly, an interesting defense mechanism.