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Honeydew, a sugary excretion produced by sap‐feeding insects, plays a pivotal role in shaping intricate interactions between insects and plants. This review explains the multifaceted aspects of honeydew, beginning with an overview of its production mechanisms and factors influencing its variability across insect species and plant hosts. Exploring its composition, we examine the chemical components and nutritional aspects, highlighting variations based on insect species and plant sources. The impact of honeydew on microbial communities is explored, shedding light on its role in influencing the diversity and abundance of microorganisms. Furthermore, the review investigates how honeydew affects pest behaviour and population dynamics, elucidating plant responses to honeydew deposition. In the realm of biocontrol, we examine the intricate relationships between honeydew and natural enemies, considering potential implications for integrated pest management. Beyond these individual components, the paper discusses the broader ecological consequences of honeydew in ecosystems, emphasizing the interconnected relationships between insects, plants and microorganisms. The review concludes by identifying research gaps and suggesting future directions, recognizing the need for further investigation into areas with potential applications for agriculture and ecology. This review provides a comprehensive synthesis of the current understanding of honeydew's significance in insect–plant interactions, offering insights for both researchers and practitioners in the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plant residue is an important carbon (C) source for soil communities that motivates underground C cycling. However, the effects of plant residue quantity on the structure of the soil micro‐food web and the transformation of exogenous C within the micro‐food web after increasing organic input are not known. Thus, a microcosm experiment was carried out to investigate the responses of soil micro‐food web (including microorganisms and nematodes) to different amounts of 13C‐labelled maize residue addition treatments [without residue addition, 1/3 (1/3R), 2/3 (2/3R) and total residue addition (R)]. The abundances of residue 13C in CO2 (13CO2), soil organic C (SO13C), microorganisms (13C‐microorganisms) and nematodes (13C‐nematodes) were determined after 1, 7, 35 and 84 days. Increasing organic input changed the micro‐food web composition and increased the amount of 13C‐bacteria, 13C‐fungi and 13C‐fungivores but not 13C‐bacterivores. The result of the 13C‐based network showed that bacterivores were positively correlated with omnivores‐predators at the early stage after increasing organic input, while fungivores were at the late stage. Greater 13CO2/SO13C but lower SO13C/total 13C input ratios were found in the R than in the 1/3R treatment at the early stage. At the late stage, the R treatment decreased both 13CO2/total 13C input and 13CO2/SO13C ratios. We concluded that increasing organic input strengthened the trophic interactions between microorganisms and nematodes. The transformation of exogenous C from bacteria to bacterivores might accelerate the turnover of soil C pool, however, the C flow from fungi to fungivores and then to omnivores‐predators could contribute to the exogenous C sequestration in soil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new and a known nematode species are described and illustrated. Oigolaimella brevigubernacula sp. n. isolated from farmyard manure collected from Aligarh, U.P., India is characterised by a medium-sized claw-like dorsal tooth, a small-sized pointed right subventral tooth and a left subventral ridge, conspicuously large spermatozoa in the female reproductive tract, a small keel-shaped gubernaculum with a small pointed extension distally and nine pairs of genital papillae. Acrobeles complexus Thorne, 1925 is also reportedanddescribed herein from saffron fields in Jammuand Kashmir, India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new rhabditid nematode, Sclerorhabditis tridentatus gen. n., sp. n. is described and illustrated. The body is small, less than 0.5 mm, and has an unusual labial and cephalic organisation. The dorsal and ventral lips have strongly sclerotised tridentate structures with the free ends of the forks directed towards the stoma, and the anterior margins of the lateral lips are sclerotised. An unusual feature of this species is the contour of the cephalic border that has axillae-like structures on the lateral sides. The stoma is wide and lacks a glottoid apparatus. The females are amphidelphic with reflexed ovaries and elongate conoid tails. Males were not found. The new genus resembles Diploscapter and the related genus Carinoscapter in having membranous lateral lips, absence of glottoid apparatus and amphidelphic reproductive system, but is clearly distinguishable by the shape and orientation of the sclerotisation of the dorsal and ventral lips and by the presence of a cephalic border. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]