**3. Discovering new bee behaviour via DR methods**

As mentioned above, DR offers new ways of studying known behaviours and features of bees. As it turned out in the following experiment, DR also introduced us to some new behaviours that were totally unexpected. We know that decision making in honeybees is based on information which is acquired and processed in

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**Figure 8.**

*Diagnostic Radioentomology*

storage strategies.

**3.1 Materials and methods**

*3.1.1 The interesting discovery*

description of these pathways see [52] and **Figure 9**.

restrictions.

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.89005*

order to make choices between two or more alternatives [51]. These choices lead to the expression of optimal behaviour strategies such as floral constancy [52]. Optimal foraging strategies such as floral constancy improve a colony's chances of survival, however, there has been no research on decision making based on optimal

The following DR experiment describes how decision making in storer bees is influenced by nectar sugar concentrations and that, within 48 hours of collection, honeybee workers store carbohydrates in groups of cells with similar sugar concentrations in a non-random way. We can surmise that this behaviour, as evidenced by patchy cell distributions, would help to hasten the ripening process by reducing the distance between cells of similar sugar concentrations [52]. Therefore, colonies which exhibit optimal storage strategies such as these would have an evolutionary advantage and improved colony survival expectations over less efficient colonies and it is plausible that beekeepers could select colonies that exhibit these preferred traits.

During an unrelated DR experiment, in an attempt to mark and track Varroa destructor within a honeybee colony, an unexpected pattern appeared on the honey comb images. Bees from several different colonies were fed marked and unmarked sucrose solution ad libitum. The bees then stored this sucrose freely without any

Soon we discovered patterns that were previously unreported appearing on the honeycomb. Some colonies formed these patterns and some did not. **Video 3** (Flying through an apidea hive) and **Figure 8** show examples of these patterns. Now, for these marking experiments, there are only two possible pathways that a cell can have only 50% sucrose solution or 70% sucrose solution in it. For a full

*A DR scan of a honey comb showing patchy distribution of cells containing honey with differing sugar concentrations. The marked 'green' cell patches contained only 70% sucrose syrup and the 'blue'* 

*unmarked cell patches contained only 50% sucrose syrup [52].*

#### *Diagnostic Radioentomology DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.89005*

*Modern Beekeeping - Bases for Sustainable Production*

was evidenced by a thin, dense film of tissue.

*2.1.5 Discussion and results*

*were accurately visualised [44].*

**Figure 7.**

particularly well preserved. The optic and antennal lobes were well reconstructed along with the dense central body and the protocerebral lobes. The retinal zone was also well preserved. Adhesion of the retinal zone to the proximal surface of the compound eyes and the corresponding region on the distal surface of the medullae

*A 2D view of Proplebeia abdita. Gross internal structures such as the central body of the brain (CB), retinal zone of the compound eyes (RT), direct (DM) and indirect (IM) flight muscles and a loaded rectum (RM)* 

Diagnostic Radioentomology permitted the comprehensive examination of this ancient specimen, where other methods were (in the case of light microscopy) and would be (in the case of SEM or TEM) found to be less reliable or unsuitable because of their limitations and/or destructive nature. The bee's anatomical characteristics were accurately assessed and precise morphometric measurements were performed with on-screen linear measuring callipers. As a result, details of a previously undescribed species, *P. abdita* Greco and Engel were described [44]. This experiment demonstrated that all three apparatuses were appropriate for accurately visualising the bee. Thus, entomologists can consider which facility would provide the best option for them. In addition to the application of DR to this particular bee, its more extensive use on historical type material (e.g. the holotype of *P. dominicana*, other amber preserved bees or even unique specimens of rare modern species) will permit a more complete characterisation of these bees and comprehensive comparisons between them and their modern counterparts. Improved anatomical understanding of these bees will greatly enhance phylogenetic reconstructions utilising paleontological data and potentially revise our paleoecological perspectives of early pollinators. It is hoped that by highlighting the utility of DR for characterising an ancient social bee that these techniques might be more broadly applied to social bee biology and anatomy, much in the tradition of [37] earlier applications of novel imaging methods and in the way it has been applied to the study of termites and living stingless bees [10, 13], as well as solitary

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bee species [11, 21].

**3. Discovering new bee behaviour via DR methods**

As mentioned above, DR offers new ways of studying known behaviours and features of bees. As it turned out in the following experiment, DR also introduced us to some new behaviours that were totally unexpected. We know that decision making in honeybees is based on information which is acquired and processed in

order to make choices between two or more alternatives [51]. These choices lead to the expression of optimal behaviour strategies such as floral constancy [52]. Optimal foraging strategies such as floral constancy improve a colony's chances of survival, however, there has been no research on decision making based on optimal storage strategies.

The following DR experiment describes how decision making in storer bees is influenced by nectar sugar concentrations and that, within 48 hours of collection, honeybee workers store carbohydrates in groups of cells with similar sugar concentrations in a non-random way. We can surmise that this behaviour, as evidenced by patchy cell distributions, would help to hasten the ripening process by reducing the distance between cells of similar sugar concentrations [52]. Therefore, colonies which exhibit optimal storage strategies such as these would have an evolutionary advantage and improved colony survival expectations over less efficient colonies and it is plausible that beekeepers could select colonies that exhibit these preferred traits.
