492 
HONEYD.EW 
erable thickness (page 489) ; but if it be 
cut away, and this rim be broken, its 
mandibles will have come so nearly together 
that the wax between them, beyond the 
rim, is almost as thin as tissue paper. In 
building natural comb, of course the bot¬ 
toms of the cells are thinned in the same 
way, as the work goes along, before any 
side walls are made at all. 
When no foundation is furnished, little 
patches of comb are started at different 
points, as shown on page 485. Then, 
as these patches enlarge, their edges are 
united so perfectly that it is sometimes dif¬ 
ficult, when the frame is filled solid, to de¬ 
termine where the pieces were united, so 
perfect is the work. At other times there 
is, perhaps, a row of irregular or drone 
cells along the line of the union. 
The midrib of natural comb becomes 
thicker as it approaches the line of sup¬ 
port and tapers toward the bottom. Why 
this is so is evident. It seems wonderful 
that there should be' a gradual gradation 
in thickness from top to bottom in spite 
of the haphazard, skip-about work bn the 
part of so many different bees. 
For the consideration of the thickness of 
combs and how far to space them apart 
see Frames, Self-spacing; also Spacing 
Frames and Comb Foundation. 
NO ARTIFICIAL COMB HONEY. 
Some persons who are foolish enough be¬ 
lieve there is a honeycomb made from wood 
pulp, punk, putty, paraffin, or perhaps 
material other than wax. Why foolish? 
Because a wise man changes his mind 
(when it becomes necessary); but a fool, 
never. It would not be surprising in these 
days of sensational journalism and of false 
nature-stories if one should get the notion 
that artificial comb honey really exists; 
but the foolish part comes in when a per¬ 
son, totally inexperienced with bees, stout¬ 
ly and smilingly maintains that there is 
such a thing as manufactured honey in the 
comb. The inimitably foolish expression 
of such a person is, perhaps, the origin of 
the colloquialism, “The smile that won’t 
come off.” No use. Do not argue. It 
won’t come. ‘“Why, I’ve seen in at the 
stores. Grocer told me all about it—was 
several cents cheaper. I tried it; we didn’t 
like it as well as the genuine.” And then 
the beekeeper goes away, not a wiser but a 
madder man, and wonders why the fool- 
killer doesn’t do his duty, and why every 
one except the beekeeper knows all about 
bees and their products. See Comb Hon¬ 
ey, also Honey Exhibits. 
HONEYDEW — Honeydew is a sweet 
glutinous liquid excreted in large quantities 
on the foliage of plants by Hemipterous 
insects, chiefly plant-lice and scale-insects. 
It is often so abundant on the leaves of 
trees and bushes that it drops upon the 
grass and sidewalks, covering them with a 
glistening coating resembling varnish. At 
times it falls in -minute globules like fine 
fain. Altho readily gathered by honeybees, 
it has an inferior flavor and is detrimental 
to beekeeping. The ancient Roman nat¬ 
uralist Pliny supposed that honeydew fell 
from the stars, and this belief was general¬ 
ly accepted for centuries. The honeydew 
gathered by bees is produced chiefly by 
five families of insects belonging to the 
suborder Homoptera of the order Hemip- 
tera or bugs; plant-lice (Aphididae), bark- 
lice or scale-insects (Coccidae), lantern- 
flies (Fulgoridae), jumping plant-lice 
(Psyllidae) and white flies (Aleyrodidae). 
A small amount of honeydew is also ex¬ 
creted by a few species of tree-hoppers 
(Membracidae),- which are attended by 
ants. 
The white flies (Aleyrodidae), small 
winged insects covered with a whitish pow¬ 
der, were formerly classed with the scale- 
insects, as in their immature-state they are 
scale-like in form. In warm regions they 
are reported to exude honeydew in large 
quantities, but in the temperate zone they 
are not sufficiently abundant to produce 
much of this excretion. 
The jumping plant-lice (Psyllidae) are 
small winged insects about one-sixth of an 
inch in length. Many of the species form 
galls. The pear tree Psylla often destroys 
pear trees by sucking the sap from the 
twigs. According to Slingerland it ex¬ 
cretes honeydew copiously. “It literally 
rained from the trees upon the vegetation 
beneath; in cultivating the orchard the 
backs of the horses and the harnesses often 
became covered with the sticky substance 
dropping from the trees. It attracts thou- 
