1971] 
Sheldon & MacLeod — Chrysopidae 
US 
value has been demonstrated by several authors who have noted the 
presence of the mono- and disaccharides fructose, glucose, and sucrose 
and such trisaccharides as raffinose and gluco-sucrose. Several more- 
complex sugars are also present along with many of the essential 
amino acids (Gray and Fraenkel, 1954; Ewart and Metcalf, 1956; 
Auclair, 1958; Burns and Davidson, 1966). All of these analyses 
were based on pure honeydew collected shortly after deposition, so 
that there was no chance for the contaminants which we have men- 
tioned above to have developed on it. The quantitative nutrient 
content of honeydews found under natural conditions should 
vary considerably from that noted above depending on the amount 
of sooty-mold and trapped pollen which is present since Todd and 
Bretkerick (1942) have shown that both of these materials contain 
considerably more amino acids than are present in pure honeydew. 
Many of the data relating to the chemical composition of different 
pollens (Todd and Bretherick, 1942; Free, 1970) have indicated the 
presence of rather high proportions of carbohydrates. Thus in an 
analysis of pollens from 26 different plant species, Todd and 
Bretherick (1942) found mean values of 25.71% reducing sugars, 
2.71% non-reducing sugars, and 2.55% starch along with mean 
values of 21.60% crude protein, 4.96% lipids (“ether extract”), 
2.70% ash, and 11.19% water. These analyses, however, were based 
on pollens which had been collected by bees, the workers of which 
add various amounts of honey and nectar to the pollen during the 
process of collection and storage (Ribbands, 1953 and references 
therein), so that the true carbohydrate content of bee-collected 
pollen is actually lower. Such lower values are shown in a similar 
analysis of six species of hand-collected pollen, in which Todd and 
Bretherick (1942) found a mean percentage of only 2.59% reducing 
sugars, while the absolute amounts of the other major constituents 
were of approximately the same order of magnitude as those in the 
samples of pollen collected by bees. Comparisons made beween the 
different species of these hand-collected pollens show that there is 
some interspecific variation in the proportions of the major nutrients, 
particularly starch, and it is obvious that only detailed studies of 
specific pollens can determine their exact nutritional characteristics. 
The low proportion of carbohydrate reported for most pollens is 
consistent with the results of the only other study which has examined 
the effectiveness of pollen as a complete diet for females of C. carnea 
(Sundby, 1967). This work indicated a carbohydrate inadequacy 
for such a diet, since, although there was a low level of oviposition 
after feeding on (timothy) pollen, a considerably higher level was 
