Honeydew is a sugar-rich sticky substance, secreted by aphids and some scale insects as they feed on plant sap. When their mouthpart penetrates the phloem, the sugary, high-pressure liquid is forced out of the gut's terminal opening. Honeydew is particularly common as a secretion in the Hemipteran insects and is often the basis for trophobiosis.[1] Some caterpillars of lycaenidae butterflies and some moths also produce honeydew.[2] Honeydew can cause sooty mold on many ornamental plants, a bane of gardeners.
Honeydew is collected by certain species of birds, wasps and honey bees, which process it into a dark, strong honey (honeydew honey). This is highly prized in parts of Europe and Asia for its reputed medicinal value.
Ants may even collect, or "milk," honeydew directly from aphids, which benefit from their presence due to their ability to drive away predators such as lady beetles.
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Religion and mythology
In Norse mythology, dew falls from the world tree Yggdrasil to the earth, and according to the Prose Edda book Gylfaginning, "this is what people call honeydew and from it bees feed."[3]
See also
Notes
- ^ Delabie, JHC (2001) Trophobiosis Between Formicidae and Hemiptera (Sternorrhyncha and Auchenorrhyncha): an Overview. Neotropical Entomology 30(4):501-516 PDF
- ^ Maschwitz U, Dumpert K, Tuck KR (1986). "Ants feeding on anal exudate from tortricid larvae: a new type of trophobiosis". Journal of Natural History 20 (5): pp. 1041–1050. doi:.
- ^ Faulkes (1995:18–19).
References
- Faulkes, Anthony (Trans.) (1995). Edda. Everyman. ISBN 0-4608-7616-3
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