| The studies described in this thesis investigate the behavioral biology of Apis cerana cerana and Apis mellifera ligustica at the Honeybee Research Institute of Jiangxi Agricultural University. Comparative research on these two species was carried out to examine their biological characteristics by using the newly developed RFID technology, and learning and memory was investigated by using a Y-maze.Chapter 2 of the thesis reports on the applications of the newly developed RFID technology. The chapter briefly introduces the characteristics, composition and working principle of a new type of RFID technology for honeybee research that was developed and manufactured by the Honeybee Research Institute of Jiangxi Agricultural University in collaboration with the Guangzhou Invengo Information Technology Co., Ltd. The potential applications for honeybee research in the future and a comparison with the RFID manufactured by Microsensys in Germany are discussed. The reliability of the RFID technology was tested by homing experiments in foragers of the two species, as reported in Chapter 3. The results indicate that there is no significant difference in homing rate between the RFID Tagged and the plastic number marked bees. It shows that the RFID Tag has no significant influence on bees'normal flight behaviour, and the rate of the missing reading for the RFID tagged bees is 3.3%. The results of testing indicate that the newly developed RFID technology is reliable.Chapter 3 of the thesis reports the results of homing experiments in foragers of Apis cerana cerana and Apis mellifera ligustica by using RFID technology. The homing experiments were carried out in the towns of Mei-ling and Xiang-tang. The homing rates were investigated at different distances and directions. The ANOVA and t-tests were performed by using the statistical software STATVIEW. The results in Mei-ling show that there is no significant difference in homing rates from 1km and 2km in Apis cerana cerana, but both were significant higher than homing from 3km. In Apis mellifera ligustica. the homing rate at 1 km is significantly higher than that at 2km and 3km, and the 2km value is significantly higher than the 3km value. At 1km, the Apis mellifera ligustica homing rate is significantly higher than Apis cerana cerana. However, there were no significant difference at 2km and 3km. At 4km, no Apis cerana cerana or Apis mellifera ligustica returned home. The results of the Xiang-tang experiments show that the homing rates increased along with the time since the colony was removed to the new environment, i.e. as the foragers' familiarity with the environment increased with time. By the 21st day. the overwhelming majority of bees could return home from the 1.5km distance in the easterly direction. The homing time decreased with an increase in homing rate, and reach a minimum value at 21 days. The homing rate at 3km to the east is significantly lower than that at 1.5km, although the number of homing workers increased gradually with time. Similar trends were not observed for homing rate and time at 1.5km and 3 km to the west.Chapter 4 of the thesis reports on the egress behavior of workers in Apis cerana cerana and Apis mellifera ligustica using RFID technology. We used RFID chips to mark newly emered workers of Apis cerana cerana and Apis mellifera ligustica, and the experimental colonies were monitored for 24 h every day. The results indicate that the first exit rate [1] of Apis cerana cerana workers is significantly different to that of Apis mellifera ligustica workers. The first egress rate of Apis cerana cerana reached its peak at the ages of 6 and 9 days. However, the peak was delayed for Apis mellifera ligustica, lying between 7 and 11 days. This suggests that the development of the nervous system of Apis cerana cerana occurs earlier than that of Apis mellifera ligustica. The egress rate and average egress times [2] of Apis cerana cerana and Apis mellifera ligustica in the whole lifetime can be divided into three stages. For the age of 1 to 8 days of Apis cerana cerana and the age of 1 to 11 of Apis mellifera ligustica, very few workers leave the hive; at 9 to 17 days and 11 to 17days, the egress rate rises gradually, and reaches a peak at the age of 18 days; after the age of 18 days, the egress rate stabilises. However, the average egress times are different from the egress rates. At the age of 1 to 14 days, the average egress times are extremely low; at 15 to 17 days, the egress time rises gradually; after the age of 18 day, the egress time stabilises. Clearly, the workers carry out several orientation flights, then transition gradually to foraging flights. Finally they become adult foragers, and the egress rate and average egress times stabilise.Chapter 5 of the thesis reports on differences in learning and memory of Apis cerana cerana and Apis mellifera ligustica foragers, by using a Y-maze. Honeybees were trained and tested to discriminate between gratings and colors. The data was analyzed by ANOVA and t-tests using the statistical software STATVIEW, and repeated measurement variance analysis of general linear model using the software SPSS. The results indicate that both Apis cerana cerana and Apis mellifera ligustica can discriminate between yellow and blue patterns. and there is no significant difference between them. However, learning of yellow pattern in Apis mellifera ligustica was significantly better than that for the blue pattern. However, there was no significant difference in Apis cerana cerana. The ability to discriminate orientations of gratings in Apis cerana cerana was significant better than that of Apis mellifera ligustica, and the number of trial blocks where a high plateau of 90% correct choices was reached was significantly lower in Apis cerana cerana.
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