Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-fv566 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-19T16:45:07.282Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

THE USE OF RADIOACTIVE PLATINUM-IRIDIUM (IR-192) TAGS FOR LOCATING HONEY BEE QUEENS IN COLONIES (HYMENOPTERA: APIDAE)1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 May 2012

D. L. Nelson  and
W. F. Baldwin
D. L. Nelson
Affiliation:
Agriculture Canada, Research Station, Beaverlodge, Alberta
W. F. Baldwin
Affiliation:
Biology and Health Physics Division, Chalk River Nuclear Laboratories Chalk River, Ontario
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

It is often necessary in queen quality, package bee development, and wintering studies to locate the queen at different times to determine her presence, weight, location, etc. In the spring, colonies are small and locating the queen is not difficult. However, in late summer, when colonies reach up to 60,000 worker bees in five or six supers, the task becomes very difficult and time consuming. While the use of radioactive tags as a means of following the movement of insects has been well established (Amason et al. 1950: Green et al. 1957; Gomez et al. 1962; Baldwin and Cowper 1969), their use for studying the movement of bees has been limited. Radioactive paint was used by G. A. Tomes (1940) and Raudszuz (1958) for marking queens but apparently proved unsuitable. This study was conducted to determine the possibility of using platinum-iridium (IR-192) tags as a means for rapid, repeated recovery of queens during the producing season

Type
Articles
Information
The Canadian Entomologist , Volume 109 , Issue 2 , February 1977 , pp. 319 - 320
Copyright
Copyright © Entomological Society of Canada 1977

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arnason, A. P., Fuller, R. A., and Spinks, J. W. T.. 1950. An electronic method of tracing the movement of soil-inhabiting insects. Science 111: 5–6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Baldwin, W. F. and Cowper, G.. 1969. The use of radioactive platinum-iridium wire (IR-192) as an internal tag for tracing insects. Can. Ent. 101(2): 151–152.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gomez-Numez, J. C. et al. 1962. El efecto de las radiaciones ionizontes sobre la Biologia y la Ecologia de Rhodnius prolixus, Vector principal de Schizotrypanum cruzi en Venezuela. Acta cient. Venez 13: 46.Google Scholar
Green, G. W., Baldwin, W. F., and Sullivan, C. R.. 1957. The rise of radio cobalt in studies of the dispersal of adult females of the European pine shoot moth, Rhyaciona buoliana (Schiff.). Can. Ent. 89: 379–383.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Raudszuz, Ing. 1958. Marking the queens with a radio-active substance. Gl. Bee Cult. 86(1): 18–19.Google Scholar
Tomes, G. A. 1940. From queen bees to B-10. Bee World (1963) 44(3): 94.Google Scholar