Homopteran insects feeding upon on plant phloem sugars excrete a syrup termed honeydew which contains high concentrations of oligosaccharides. The creation of these oligosaccharides from sucrose in the phloem sap by transglycosylation reactions’ has been proposed as an osmoregulatatory mechanism in these insects*. Understanding this osmoregulation process would require a knowledge of the carboh...

Cotton varieties expressing Cry proteins derived from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) are grown worldwide for the management of pest Lepidoptera. To prevent non-target pest outbreaks and to retain the biological control function provided by predators and parasitoids, the potential risk that Bt crops may pose to non-target arthropods is addressed prior to their commercialization. ...

Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) whiteßy populations produce economically important damage to crops by their direct feeding and also by transmitting plant viruses. Although there are several methods to reduce B. tabaci damage, most growers rely on the use of insecticides to decrease populations of this pest. Insecticides that reduce feeding of whiteßy adults may also reduce the transmission of viruse...

—A wide variety of blood-feeding Diptera feed on extrafloral sugar sources such as homopteran honeydew. The significance of these sugar sources to insect survival and disease transmission is poorly known. Culicoides sonorensis, a biting midge, can survive on plant sugars but might also feed on homopteran honeydew. The survival of C. sonorensis fed 10% melezitose or 10% stachyose was compared to...

Stigmacoccus garmilleri Foldi (Hemiptera: Margarodidae) is an ecologically important honeydew-producing scale insect associated with oak trees (Quercus spp.) in highland forests of Veracruz, Mexico. The honeydew exudates of S. garmilleri serve as a significant nutrient source to many species of birds, insects, and sooty molds. Oak trees found in the forest interior, forest edge, and those scatt...

Many aphids are known to engage in a trophic mutualism with ants, whereby the aphids secrete sugary-rich honeydew which is collected by the ants for food, and the ants, in exchange, protect the aphids against natural enemies. Previous results, however, suggest that the production of some of the honeydew sugars, such as the ant-attractant trisaccharide melezitose, may induce an indirect cost to ...

To examine the seasonal availability of the major bellbird (Anthornis melanura) food sources in a mountain beech (Nothofagus solandri var. cliffortioides) forest at Craigieburn, the invertebrate, honeydew, and mistletoe (Peraxilla tetrapetala and Alepis flavida) fruit and nectar resources were sampled over 12 months. The total available food varied 2.6-fold from a low in October (8798 kJ/ha) to...

Conservation biological control involving the polyphagous aphid parasitoid, Aphidius colemani Viereck, may include provisioning resources from a variety of plant sources. The fitness of adult A. colemani was enhanced with the provision of food resources such as floral nectar from a range of both native and introduced plant species and aphid honeydew under laboratory conditions. However, enhance...

INTRODUCTION In this study, membranes composed of honey (Manuka or Honeydew) and pectin were developed, and the ISO 22196 method was used to evaluate their antibacterial activities against multidrug-resistant bacteria (i.e., Staphylococcus pseudointermedius, Escherichia coli, Proteus mirabilis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa) that cause wound infection in animals. The results demonstrated that both Man...

We describe a simple gravimetric technique for measuring the standing crop or production of carbohydrate-rich solutions such as honeydew or nectar. Simulated honeydew was sampled by absorbing droplets of solutions of known concentration and volume with dried and weighed pieces of filter paper. The change in mass of the paper after redrying provides an estimate of the total solution carbohydrate...