Bacandritsos, N. 2004 Establishment and honeydew honey production of Marchalina hellenica (Coccoidea: Margarodidae) on fir tree (Abies cephalonica).. Bulletin of Insectology 57(2): 127-130.

Notes: M. hellenica is an important honeydew-producing scale insect useful to apiculture and endemic in the pine (Pinus halepensis) forests of Greece. Until 1995, this insect was known to be monophagous on certain species of the genus Pinus. From 1995 onwards, several attempts were made to establish M. hellenica on fir trees, A. cephalonica, on Mt. Helmos (Greece). In 1995 and 1996, inoculation treatments, either with 2nd instar insects or with adult individuals, were used for the establishment of the insect on fir trees. These trials were successful and for the first time in 1999, honey was collected, the physicochemical characteristics of which suggest that the honey was of good quality. These results create the necessary preconditions for the increase in honey production derived from the honeydew secretions of M. hellenica.