10 



HONEYDEW HONEY. 



The honeydew product comes mainly from a viscid saccharine 

 secretion of the sugar-cane leaf -hopper (Perkinsiella saccharidica) 

 and the sugar-cane aphis (Aphis sacchari) deposited on the surface 

 of the leaves of the sugar cane. However, in Hawaii, as in other 

 tropical countries, the plant lice, scale insects, and related families of 

 insects are abundant, and some honeydew is to be found on plants in 

 almost any locality. The increase in the production of Hawaiian 

 honey of recent years corresponds with the advent of the introduced 

 sugar-cane leaf-hopper into the cane fields, and the present extension 

 of the business is in the vicinity of the immense areas of land given 

 to cane culture. 



Mention should be made of the fact that certain plants possess 

 foliary or extra-floral nectaries which secrete honeydew. 



While no great amount of this product is gathered and stored by 

 honeybees in Hawaii, they have been observed locally collecting the 

 honeydew from such glands on the hau tree (Paritium tiliaceiim). 



The amount of honeydew honey collected is in addition to the total 

 amount available from the floral source, for it is only when the 

 algeroba flower ceases that the bees seek the honeydew of the sugar- 

 cane fields. The larger amount of honeydew is obtained from the 

 young plant cane, for there the leaf-hoppers are more active. The 

 flow of honeydew is limited by the maturity of the cane and the rains 

 that wash the secretion from the leaves. 



An analysis of honeydew honey elaborated entirely from the secre- 

 tion of the sugar-cane leaf-hopper is as follows : a 



Analysis of honeydew honey. 



Water per ceut__ 15. 12 



Ash do 2. 04 



Sucrose (Clerget) do 7.2 



Reducing sugars (as dextrose) do 59.76 



Polarization direct +24. 5 



Polarization indirect, at 31.7° C +15.3 



A more detailed analysis of a duplicate sample of this honey made 

 by C. A. Browne, of the Bureau of Chemistry, United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, agrees with the above analysis in all essential 

 points. (See p. IT.) 



Honeydew honey is noncrystalline and usually of a very dark color. 

 The aroma is very similar to that of molasses and the taste insipid. 

 The product is abnormally high in ash, the amount ranging from 1 to 

 2 per cent, and it has a decided right-handed polarization. 



Bui. 17 



a See Part II, sample No. 17, p. 14. 



