honey tube

English

Noun

honey tube (plural honey tubes)

(botany) A modified petal that fills with nectar which is then collected by insects; nectary.
- 1873 July 3, Hermann Muller, “On the Fertilisation of Flowers by Insects aned On the Reciprocal Adaptations of Both”, in Nature London: The International Weekly Journal of Science, page 189:
  In order to empty the deepest honey tubes accessible to it, the bee stretches out all the moveable parts of its sucking apparatus (lora, cardines, laminae, maxillar palpi, and tongue) in the same manner as is shown in Figs. 1 and 2, with the only difference that the two first joints of the labial palpi sheathe the tongue from beneath and that the laminae closely embrace the menutum and the basal part of the tongue from above.
- 1908, M. M. Penstone, A Cycle of Nature Study Suitable for Children Under Twelve, page 195:
  In the pansy one petal is modified for the same purpose, and in the columbine each of the five petals is a honey-tube.
- 2023, John Lubbock, Nature Series on British Wild Flowers, page 109:
  In remarkable contrast to these species, with their exposed honey, is the genus Lonicera (the honeysuckle). Lonicera caprifolium has a honey tube no less than 30 mm. long, for the most part not above 1-2 mm. wide, and moreover a great part occupied by the style.
(entomology) The cornicle on an aphid.
- 1867 July, Francis Gregory Sanborn, “Plant-Lice and Scale-Insects”, in American Journal of Horticulture and Florists' Companion, volume 2, page 86:
  These are crowded upon the leaves, some with their beaks buried so deeply as to appear as if standing upon their heads, pumping up the sap, and swelling out their delicate bodies till they seem fit to burst: globules of the sweet secretion continually forming at the extremity of each honey-tube, steadily increasing and dropping; the busy ants running hither and thither, now approaching, and lapping the drops, now rushing with meancing air and open jaws at some eager wasp or fly, who, just arrived, desires to share the repast, and whose conscience would not upbraid him should he devour a few of the confectioners with their own sirup.
- 1900, John B. Smith, The Apple Plant Louse:
  This combination of a small honey tube and a feeler in which there is a single sensory pit on the ter minal joint, is peculiar to this larva just from the egg; none of the later broods have it .
- 1908 January, C. F. Jackson, “Notes on the Aphididae”, in Ohio Naturalist, volume 8, number 3, page 249:
  Fig 2. Dorsal outline of the posteriro region of abdomen showing honey-tube within which are small characcteristic bodies and a fine tube which resembles a trachea.
A small tube that fits into one of the frames in certain types of beehive, allowing the beekeeper to collect honey.
- 1902, Ontario. Dept. of Agriculture and Food, Annual Report - Volume 2, page 34:
  The longer the honey tube is in the drying oven the greater the loss – and the higher the percentage of water – apparently.
- 1913 December 10, F. R. Beuhne, “Bee-keeping in Victoria”, in The Journal of the Department of Victoria, volume 11, page 723:
  The elevation of the honey tube should be such that while a continuous overflow of honey and wax is maintained during uncapping of combs, both liquids should from the machine free from impurities, the dross, of which there is a considerable quantity when old black combs are uncapped, should remain in the tray.
- 2020, Robert Owen, The Australian Beekeeping Manual, page 329:
  20.25 Inserting the honey tube through which honey will be removed.