The age of honey bee larvae at grafting can affect survival during larval tests

Abstract

Honey bee larvae have been used in many experiments to assess the hazards of the environmental pollutants, including pesticides. Most studies have used one-day-old larvae to perform the experiments. This study aims to investigate the effects of larval age at grafting on survival during laboratory tests. Larvae grafted at different ages (one, three, and four days old) were compared in regard to their survival under the same laboratory conditions until hatching of adults. Our results showed that the main reason of death of larvae or pupae prior to the completion of the development was due to larval age at grafting. The grafted three-day-old larvae had better survival and were practically easier to use than the other two ages, hence the option of using larvae at this age during larval tests is supported.