Roger A. Morse

Drone Congregation Areas

SUMMARYBy elevating virgin queen honeybees to heights of 6–30 m. with helium-filled balloons, it was determined that drones could be attracted in some areas and not in others. The degree of attraction varied. The data suggest that definite drone congregation areas exist, and it would appear that queens search out these areas and are there pursued by drones. It has so far been almost impossible to define a drone congregation area physically.

Elemental analysis of honey as an indicator of pollution. Forty-seven elements in honeys produced near highway, industrial, and mining areas.

Nineteen samples of honey taken from grocery shelves, near zinc mines, adjacent to an industrial area, and near a major highway, and one sample collected in 1899 were subjected to spark source mass spectrometry to determine the concentration of most of 47 elements in the honey. Certain samples of honey produced by bees in the vicinity of the New York State Thruway appeared to contain elevated levels of certain elements known to be emitted by traffic, such as aluminum, barium, calcuim, copper, magnesium, nickel, palladium, and silicon, but the true source of these elements was uncertain. Honey that had come into contact with metal containers in processing contained the greatest amounts of zinc and tin.

Tropilaelaps Clareae: a Parasite of Honeybees in South-East Asia

The first report on Varroa jacobsoni in Bee World was published in 1967 (pages 119–121), and an article by P. Akratanakul and M. Burgett appeared in 1975 entitled ‘Varroa jacobsoni: a prospective pest of honeybees in many parts of the world’. The spread of Varroa into a number of countries occurred from 1977 onwards.As early as 1962 (pages 81–82) A. S. Michael reported on another mite Tropilaelaps clarea, found in collections of dead honeybees from an apiary in the Philippines. Much has been published since, but it still does not seem to be sufficiently realized that this mite could become as serious a pest of honeybees in the world at large as Varroa. Some believe that it could be more serious. This article brings the information up to date.

Observations on Alarm Substances in the Genus Apis

SUMMARYThe stings of worker bees in four species of Apis from North America, Europe and the Far East, all contain isopentyl acetate, but the amount obtained differs from species to species. Heptan-2-one, which also elicits alarm throughout the genus, was found only in A. mellifera. The alarm substances must be released within close proximity of the nests in order to evoke alarm behaviour.

The Seasonal Cycle of Swarming in Honeybees

SummaryA six-year study of natural swarming in Ithaca, NY, USA, showed a bimodal distribution for date of swarm emergence, with a peak during the first two weeks in June and a lesser peak during the last week in August and the first week in September. The mean swarm size for 126 swarms was 1·53 kg (11 800 bees). The mean weight of 116 swarm queens was 195·9 mg; of mated queens 203·4 mg, and of virgin queens 185·0 mg. Data from 1976 suggest that a virgin or a young mated queen may accompany a prime swarm.

Determination of carbaryl in honeybees and pollen by high-performance liquid chromatography

Abstract Fifty of seventy bee and pollen samples were found to contain methyl parathion and/or carbaryl. One-third of these were randomly analyzed for azinphos methyl; several were positive. Responsibility for bee kills is difficult to determine and cannot be assigned on the basis of suspicion and a positive confirmatory analysis; other possible causes must be exclused. A multi-residue scheme for the above, plus fenvalerate, is presentd. High-performance liquid chromatographic determination of carbaryl on a reversed-phase column (C 8 -RCSS) with detection by both UV and fluorescence is discussed. The advantages of the latter detection method in this application are illustrated.

Nectar and pollen production in pumpkin (Cucurbita pepo L.)

As especies das cucurbitaceas dependem da polinizacao por abelhas para produzir frutos. O objetivo geral deste trabalho foi avaliar o potencial da C. Pepo para produzir polen e nectar, no sentido de ajudar a manter colonias no campo visando a polinizacao. Plantas de abobora foram cultivadas no campo, em 1996 e 1997. Antes da antese, flores masculinas foram cobertas para prevenir visitas de abelhas e outros insetos. Depois da antese as flores foram desprotegidas e os seguintes parâmetros foram avaliados: 1) producao de nectar; 2) concentracao total de acucar no nectar; 3) reposicao de nectar e 4) producao de polen e flores durante o ciclo da cultura. A producao de nectar variou de 18 a 79 µL flor-1 e aumentou progressivamente de 7h00 para 13h00. A concentracao de acucares, avaliada as 7h00, 9h00 e 11h00, nao variou, apresentando uma media de 50,5% ± 0,5% em 1996 e 40,5% ± 0,6% em 1997. As 13h00 a concentracao decresceu para 42% em 1996 e para 35% em 1997. A producao diaria de nectar nao foi influenciada pela remocao do nectar em diferentes horas do dia, indicando que a producao de nectar nao e estimulada ou inibida pela frequente remocao. O numero de graos de polen nao variou nos dois anos, com uma media de 43.669 ± 1.382 graos por flor. O pico de producao de flores masculinas e femininas ocorreu 60 a 66 dias apos o plantio (DAP), com 34,6 flores masculinas e 2,2 flores femininas por planta, respecivamente. C. pepo tem um potencial para producao de mel e polen de 105 e 160 kg por hectare, respectivamente, que e suficiente para alimentar, pelo menos, cinco colonias de abelhas.

Polychlorinated biphenyls in honey bees

Honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) may traverse a radius of several miles from their hives and contact innumerable surfaces during their collection of nectar, pollen, propolis and water. In the process, they may become contaminated with surface constituents which are indicative of the type of environmental pollution in their particular foraging area. Honey has also been analyzed as a possible indicator of heavy metal pollution. Insecticides used in the vicinity of bee hives have been found in bees and honey. It has been recently reported that appreciable concentrations of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) have been found in honey bees sampled throughout Connecticut. In the work reported here, an analytical survey was conducted on PCBs in honey bees, honey, propolis and related samples in several states to learn the extent of contamination and possible sources.

Factors Influencing the Fermentation of Honey in Mead Production

SUMMARYAttempts were made to produce a good-flavoured mead by more rapid fermentation than is usual. Several wine yeasts were tested, and additives of two types, I composed mainly of inorganic salts and citric acid, and II with a wide spectrum of vitamins and small amounts of organic and inorganic nitrogen compounds.Honeys varied in their fermentability, in general light honeys being more difficult to ferment than dark honeys. But addition of growth factors allowed all honeys tested to be fermented rapidly, yielding characteristic meads which had none of the unpleasant flavour associated with long (unaided) fermentation.A recommended procedure is described, which uses additives I + II and can give a dry or sweet mead (alcohol content 12% or 14–15%). Fermentation takes about 2 weeks without agitation. The production of mead champagne and mead sherry is also described.

Chemical Characters of Two Related Species of Giant Honeybees (Apis dorsata and A. laboriosa): Possible Ecological Significance

The Himalyan honeybee, Apis laboriosa, is sometimes considered to be a form of the rock honeybee, A. dorsata, rather than a separate species. Analyses of potential exocrine compounds produced by both forms revealed that the cephalic and abdominal natural products of these two honeybees shared no common denominators. The sting shaft of workers of A. dorsata is the source of a large series of esters dominated by 1-acetoxy-2-decene. Other major constituents include isopentyl acetate, accompanied by isopentyl propionate, farnesyl acetate, and several other esters. On the other hand, nothing but presumed structural lipids (e.g., ethyl palmitoleate) were identified from sting shafts of workers of A. laboriosa. By contrast, cephalic (including mandibular glands) extracts from workers of A. laboriosa contained γ-octanoic lactone, whereas comparable extracts of A. dorsata workers contained only structural lipids. The major qualitative differences in the chemical characters between A. laboriosa and A. dorsata are consistent with the designation of these two forms as distinct species.