Influence of diet on sugars found by thin‐layer chromatography in thoraces of honey bees, Apis mellifera L.

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Abstract
Twelve sugars in 0.5 M solution in water and also in 0.5 M solution in 0.5 M sucrose were fed to newly emerged, caged honey bee workers. After 11 to 27 hours, the sugars of ice water extracts of degutted thoraces were promptly analyzed by thin‐layer chromatography.Unlike published values for sugars in the hemolymph from healthy bees, trehalose was the predominant sugar in the thorax. Lesser amounts of glucose and only traces of fructose were found. Trisaccharides were found in the thorax after they were fed to bees.Progress was made toward determining which nonsustentative sugars are toxic and which are not accepted. Galactosides seem toxic per se and not to be progenitors of toxic galactose. Galactosides and mannose gave no buildup of a particular sugar to indicate metabolic blockage. Starved bees and moribund bees with empty crops contained glucose but no trehalose. Analysis of thoracic sugars has potential value in diagnosis of bee poisoning.