A Look into the Cell: Honey Storage in Honey Bees, Apis mellifera.

ABSTRACT: Honey bees, Apis species, obtain carbohydrates from nectar and honeydew. These resources are ripened into honey in wax cells that are capped for long-term storage. These stores are used to overcome dearth periods when foraging is not possible. Despite the economic and ecological importance of honey, little is known about the processes of its production by workers. Here, we monitored the usage of storage cells and the ripening process of honey in free-flying A. mellifera colonies. We provided the colonies with solutions of different sugar concentrations to reflect the natural influx of nectar with varying quality. Since the amount of carbohydrates in a solution affects its density, we used computer tomography to measure the sugar concentration of cell content over time. The data show the oc

SUBMITTER: Eyer M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4999132 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature