honeydew

…from which the ants collect honeydew (a by-product of digestion secreted by certain aphids). The honey ants (Myrmecocystus, Camponotus, and others) store honeydew in the distended abdomens of specialized workers. Some genera (Leptothorax) eat the honeydew that has fallen onto the surface of a leaf. The so-called Argentine ant (Iridomyrmex…

…unique way of storing the honeydew, a by-product of digestion that is gathered mainly from the secretions of aphids and scale insects. A worker ant, fed by the others, is called a replete. The honeydew is stored in the replete’s abdomen, which can become distended to many times its normal…

Sometimes they collect honeydew, an exudate from certain plant-sucking insects, and store it as honey. The primary carbohydrate diet of bees is honey. They also collect pollen, the dustlike male element, from the anthers of flowers. Pollen provides the essential proteins necessary for the rearing of young bees.…

…insect prey, weaver ants eat honeydew, a sweet liquid waste excreted by some sap-sucking insects, such as mealybugs, aphids, and scale. To maintain a ready supply of honeydew, weaver ants act as ranchers of small herds of these insects, guarding them against predators such as ladybugs and spiders.

Ants may guard and care for aphids in return for the honeydew (a sweet excretory product) they produce. Ants protect aphids from weather and natural enemies and transfer them from wilted to healthy plants. In this way the ants ensure their source of…

Some species secrete honeydew, a sweet by-product of digestion that attracts ants. The ants stroke, or “milk,” the larva with their legs to stimulate honeydew secretion. The large blue (Maculinea arion, or Phengaris arion) spends its larval and pupal stages in an ant nest, emerging in the spring…

Some secrete honeydew, a sweet by-product of digestion that attracts ants. The ants stroke, or “milk,” the larva with their legs to stimulate honeydew secretion.

…as sweet droplets known as honeydew. If the insect is feeding on apple foliage and honeydew falls on apples, a sooty fungus (sooty mold) grows in each droplet. The apples become black spotted and are no longer marketable. Many other homopterans also produce honeydew, with sooty mold growing on whatever…

Plant sap contains a large quantity of water, and in order to extract sufficient nutrients to survive, a large quantity of sap must be ingested. The alimentary tract has a modification referred to as the filter chamber that allows nutrients to be concentrated in…

…aphids and scales that provide honeydew or other sweet fluids. Ants that obtain sweet fluids from the caterpillars of certain species of blue butterflies (Lycaenidae) reciprocate by allowing the caterpillars to devour ant larvae. The honey ant (Myrmecocystus in the United States, Plagiolepis in Africa) has in the nest a…

…feed, the spotted lanternflies excrete honeydew, a sweet, sticky fluid, which attracts insects such as bees, wasps, and ants. The fluid also promotes the growth of sooty mold, a plant disease that can form densely on the leaves and block sunlight, reducing the rate of photosynthesis. Eventually, this can cause…