A method for distinctly marking honey bees, Apis mellifera, originating from multiple apiary locations

James Hagler1a*, Shannon Mueller2b, Larry R. Teuber3c, Allen Van Deynze3d and Joe Martin4

1Arid Land Agricultural Research Center, USDA-ARS, 21881 North Cardon Lane, Maricopa, AZ 85138 USA
2University of California Cooperative Extension, 1720 S. Maple Avenue, Fresno, CA 93702 USA
3University of California, Department of Plant Sciences, Mail Stop 1, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616 USA
4Carl Hayden Bee Research Center, USDA-ARS, 2000 E. Allen Road, Tucson, AZ 85719 USA (retired)

Abstract

Inexpensive and non-intrusive marking methods are essential to track natural behavior of insects for biological experiments. An inexpensive, easy to construct, and easy to install bee marking device is described in this paper. The device is mounted at the entrance of a standard honey bee Apis mellifera L. (Hymenoptera: Apidae) hive and is fitted with a removable tube that dispenses a powdered marker. Marking devices were installed on 80 honey bee colonies distributed in nine separate apiaries. Each device held a tube containing one of five colored fluorescent powders, or a combination of a fluorescent powder (either green or magenta) plus one of two protein powders, resulting in nine unique marks. The powdered protein markers included egg albumin from dry chicken egg whites and casein from dry powdered milk. The efficacy of the marking procedure for each of the unique markers was assessed on honey bees exiting each apiary. Each bee was examined, first by visual inspection for the presence of colored fluorescent powder and then by egg albumin and milk casein specific enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA). Data indicated that all five of the colored fluorescent powders and both of the protein powders were effective honey bee markers. However, the fluorescent powders consistently yielded more reliable marks than the protein powders. In general, there was less than a 1% chance of obtaining a false positive colored or protein-marked bee, but the chance of obtaining a false negative marked bee was higher for “protein-marked” bees.

Keywords: ELISA, fluorescent powder, mark-capture, pollen mediated gene flow, protein marking, self-marking

Correspondence: a james.hagler@ars.usda.gov, b scmueller@ucdavis.edu, c lrteuber@ucdavis.edu, d avandeynze@ucdavis.edu, *Corresponding author

Editor: Todd Shelly was Editor of this paper.

Received: 2 December 2011 | Accepted: 13 April 2011 | Published: 2 November 2011

ISSN: 1536-2442 | Volume 11, Number 143

Hagler J, Mueller S, Teuber LR, Van Deynze A, Martin J. 2011. A method for distinctly marking honey bees, Apis mellifera, originating from multiple apiary locations. Journal of Insect Science 11:143 available online: insectscience.org/11.143


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