HONEYDEW 
495 
a part of the aphids the tubes are wanting 
or are greatly reduced in size. 
Hemipterous insects of the families de¬ 
scribed live wholly on plant sap. The 
mouth-parts form a jointed beak consisting 
of four slender bristles enclosed in a joint¬ 
ed sheath, which is a prolongation of the 
lower lip. With this pointed beak the in¬ 
sect easily pierces the bark or leaf and 
sucks out the sap of the plant tissues. The 
jointed sheath permits of a change of po¬ 
sition without the removal of the beak. A 
part of the sap is digested and is used for 
growth and the production of young, while 
the residue is expelled as a waste substance 
known as honeydew. It is thus undoubt- 
This type might perhaps be used by manu¬ 
facturers of blacking or of lubricants. It 
is not a safe food for winter. If the bees 
are left on the summer stands and can 
obtain frequent flights, they may winter in 
fair condition; but, if they are placed in 
a cellar, they will all probably perish from 
dysentery. For brood-rearing in the 
spring it is unobjectionable, and it is, 
therefore, advised that it be removed from 
the hives in the fall and sugar syrup fed 
in its stead. 
The composition of honeydew honeys as 
compared with floral honeys is shown in the 
chemical analyses given in the following- 
table : 
Water 
Invert sugar 
(Grape and 
fruit sugar) 
Sucrose 
(Cane Sugar) 
Dextrin 
(Gums) 
Undetermined 
c5 r 
© o 
O; * 
j* CO 
W c3 
Floral konevs 
Sweet clover . 
17.49 
76.20 
2.24 
0.12 
0.45 
3.50 
0.12 
White clover . 
17.64 
74.92 
1.77 
0.07 
0.82 
4.78 
0.06 
Alfalfa . 
16.56 
76.90 
4.42 
0.07 
0.34 
1.71 
0.08 
Honevdews 
Hickorv . 
16.05 
65.89 
2.76 
0.78 
12.95 
1.57 
0.12 
White oak . 
13.56 
55.87 
4.31 
0.79 
10.49 
4.98 
0.08 
Hawaiian sugar cane. 
15.46 
64.84 
5.27 
1.29 
10.01 
3.13 
0.15 
edly an excretion which escapes by way of 
the anal opening. It may not, however, 
consist entirely of the waste products of 
digestion. MacGillivray states that in 
plant-lice, which produce honeydew abun¬ 
dantly, the posterior portion of the rectum 
is greatly enlarged and is lined with large 
active cells, which may excrete the honey¬ 
dew. The objection ta honeydew on the 
ground that it is an excretion rather than 
a secretion is largely imaginary, as secre¬ 
tion is the more general term including ex¬ 
cretion. 
The quality of honeydew varies greatly 
according to the plant on which it occurs 
and the insects producing it. When fresh¬ 
ly gathered it may be clear, sweet, and 
agreeable in flavor, or at least not unpala¬ 
table. The better grades find a ready 
sale to bakers, who prefer it for baking 
purposes to floral honey. But usually it 
is very inferior in quality, for when it i’e- 
mains for days on the foliage it gathers 
many impurities. A black smut sometimes 
Covers the leaves so that the extracted hon¬ 
eydew is inky black resembling coal tar. 
From the above table it is apparent that 
honeydew honey contains less invert sugar; 
but more sucrose or cane sugar, dextrin 
or gums, and ash. It is because of the 
larger percentage of gums and ash that it 
is unsuitable for winter feeding. Honey¬ 
dew honey may also be distinguished from 
floral honey by means of the polariscope. 
A ray of light passed thru a solution of 
floral honey is turned or rotated to the 
left, but passed thru a solution of honey¬ 
dew honey it is turned to the right. If 
floral honey turns the ray to the right, it 
has been adulterated with glucose. No 
floral honey is obtained from the wind- 
pollinated flowers of hickory and white 
oak. 
Besides bees honeydew is attractive to 
wasps, ants, flies, and other insects. Bees 
pay no attention to plant-lice, but ants care 
for them and stroke them gently with their 
antennas in order to induce them to yield 
honeydew more freely. This behavior led 
the botanist Linnasus to call Aphis the cow 
of the ants (Aphis formicarum vacca). 
Ants defend plant-lice from their enemies, 
