Rearing honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) in vitro: effects of feeding intervals on survival and development

SummaryA new and simple technique was developed to rear honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) in vitro. One day old larvae were grafted into Petri dishes and fed a basic diet at six different time intervals. There were no differences in the larval weights, survival rates or ovariole numbers of the bees among the groups that were fed at different intervals, but they were heavier and had larger ovaries than hive reared bees. It was shown that honey bees can be reared in vitro without replenishing their food daily. This simple mass provisioning technique reduces the labour involved, and enables the researcher to raise large number of bees in vitro.