Honeydews are excretions made by piercing and suction insects (Rinchota Homoptera), which use their piercing oral apparatus to attack plants and suck out the phloem liquid which is rich in nourishing substances, especially aminoacids. To satisfy their protein needs, these insects are compelled to suck large amounts of this phloema sap which contains only 1-2 % of proteins and is rich in water and sugars. Some Rinchota (for example Coccides) have a complex digestive tract, with a filtering chamber which connects the ingluvies to the rectum. Most of their food passes across this filter and, as a consequence, their excretions become richer in water and saccharose (the carrier suger in plant sap).

Despite the fact that there are many species of pine in Italy (including Aleppo), and that specific piercing and suction insects belonging to the Cinara genus are present, there is no evidence that any pine honeydew honey is actually produced. In Greece and Turkey, however, large amounts of this tipe of honey are obtained from are obtained from Pinus brutia Ten. and Pinus halepensis Mill., thanks to the activity of piercing and suction insects belonging to the Marchalina hellenica Gennadius species. Pine honeydew honey contains an enormous number of hyphae and spores; the hyphae are particularly large and belong to a fungi species usually not found in the various kinds of honeydew honey produced in countries except for Greece and Turkey (a marker element).