honey tubes

Noun

honey tube (plural honey tubes)

1. A modified petal that fills with nectar which is then collected by insects; nectary.
   • 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...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
2. The cornicle on an aphid.
   • 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...1867 July, Francis Gregory Sanborn, “Plant-Lice and Scale-Insects”, in American Journal of Horticulture and Florists' Companion, volume 2, page 86
3. A small tube that fits into one of the frames in certain types of beehive, allowing the beekeeper to collect honey.
   • The longer the honey tube is in the drying oven the greater the loss – and the higher the percentage of water – apparently.1902, Ontario. Dept. of Agriculture and Food, Annual Report - Volume 2, page 34